


I am Yours, You are Mine

by ThulaLani



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25749646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThulaLani/pseuds/ThulaLani
Summary: This is canon divergent. Nick and Adalind are separated, living apart since after his trip to Germany. Can they find their way back when they were barely together to begin with?
Relationships: Nick Burkhardt/Adalind Schade
Comments: 30
Kudos: 128





	1. Chapter 1

She was humming again. 

The faintest smile grazed his lips as he pictured the scene on the other side of his hooded lids. Adalind was sweetly ministering to his hungry son and inadvertently lulling Nick deeper into restful sleep...but he was awake and suddenly Kelly’s wispy cries, like smoke, vanished with the cold light of day slipping unchecked through the steel shuttered windows of their bedroom. When he finally caved and opened his eyes, Adalind was nowhere in sight and neither was his son. 

Instead of relief, a stabbing pain swiftly gulped down the anticipation to hold his son in his arms as always, before heading down to the Precinct for yet another day of murder and mayhem in the city of Portland. Instead of warmth, the cold harsh reality of a new dawn greeted him. Adalind and Kelly were gone and no longer residing in the upper loft of the paint factory that he had bought to keep them safe.   
He had to get ready for work. 

He steeled himself against the onslaught of images. For almost a year, this barren loft was a home. There wasn’t any hard edge, nook or cranny that Adalind’s hand didn’t soften, much to his surprise, as he looked around, the one bedroom “studio” the now matched his situation. At first, he was crazy to move in with the woman who’d wrecked his life years earlier but he’d do anything for hid little boy and against the strangest of odds, they had made work, down to their “sleeping arrangements”.

It was a confusing time, the ease with which Adalind and he crossed that particular threshold when his Grimm instinct told him to keep her at arm’s length. For an outspoken Blutbad, Monroe had never openly encouraged nor discouraged the sudden change of relation between Nick and Adalind. However, Hank was not so subtle in his disapproval and Nick fully understood dis reservations with the entire arrangement. In truth, Nick of all people should have known better than to entangle himself once more with that particular Hexenbiest, powers-suppression be damned.   
Far easier said than done….

The surreal experiment that was their unconventional family unit, if one could even call it that had finally expired. Perhaps it was for the best. Nick was a Grimm and Adalind Schade’s Biest abilities had made an unwelcome return, one neither of them could afford to pretend didn’t exist. 

She’d cornered him one night barely a second after entering the loft and confessed everything. To say he was shocked was an understatement. Hearing the words, seeing it, he felt more as if he’d taken a swift Siegbarste kick to the gut. There was something about her whole demeanour, so detached and without feeling as the words rolled of her tongue, confirmed by her magicking her cell phone from across the bedroom into her open hand. 

“We always knew this was temporary,” she had said with cold finality. He wasn’t sure whether she referred to her abilities or their strange yet not situation. Nick couldn’t ask her meaning, wary of his own thoughts betraying him; it was an open secret Grimm and Hexenbiest were enemies, the mortal kind and he and Adalind already shared a history reflecting that reality. Before that night, foolishly, he had set it all aside when the suppression potion did its job; and they both had a son to look after and things snowballed from there. The joke was now squarely on him. Adalind was back to her old self and he lost his son as a result.

With her abilities returned, she wasn’t vulnerable anymore and needed his protection even less. Her old firm had come knocking dangling more added benefits to cater for Kelly and Adalind expressed her need for independence made it impossible for her to turn them down. As a contract lawyer, she drew up an agreement that was as agreeable to him as possible with his schedule, shared custody but with his time split between being a cop and a Grimm, it meant even less time spent with his son now with them living on the opposite end of town from the loft. As accommodating as Adalind tried to be, it simply wasn’t the same as when they were all together.

He missed Kelly terribly. 

In the space of a few short months, the loft had ceased to be a fortress to hide from their enemies and rather became a haven, their own little slice of the world without judgement or expectations. On good days, Nick would often come home, finding them rolling about on the carpet cheerfully before she gave Kelly’s his bath and putting him down for the night. Admitting Adalind was a great mother was easy now that he saw it first-hand. 

Nick pulled back the covers and before he could stop himself, his hand lingered on the empty side of the bed where she had slept every night for over eight months. If Nick dared admit it to himself, he missed her too. He missed having someone to talk to at the end of his day, or even at the start of it, before Hank or Wu dragged him out of bed too soon because they’d found a body. It amazed him how easy it was talking to Adalind, not just about his day at the Precinct, but about everything else going on in his life. When he started his life as a Grimm, he relied heavily on the books, then Monroe came along with his brand of wisdom and suddenly Adalind was another surprising fountain of knowledge from which he’d find himself drinking. 

It was freeing. Sometimes, when things got more relaxed between them, she’d offer up her own tale of experience in commiseration, laughing at some of her past misfortunes as she grew into her abilities. It should have gotten his hackles up, the old Adalind causing trouble but it had eased some of the tension in him from working some tough cases. 

That was old, past Adalind, not the one nursing his son to sleep every night, he’d reasoned within himself.

That night, she’d informed him of her intention to leave, “I cannot stay.” What she’d meant was they couldn’t stay; a familiar dividing wall had magically formed between them and he couldn’t demand she stay, let alone as her to when she’ long made up her mind and taking Kelly away from her wasn’t an option. He had learnt the hard way never to repeat that mistake again. For all of their sakes, his son’s especially, he had to make the best of a horribly unfair situation. 

It was strange that shy of one full year ago, he went from happily wanting to see the backside of Adalind Schade forever, not caring what rock she crawled under as long as it was far away from his presence, to suddenly caring, feverishly so…for Kelly, so he claimed to anyone that bothered to ask. The days immediately after she packed up the last of her meagre belongings and some of Kelly’s, Nick had nearly ground himself to nothing with worry. It took everything within him not to drive past her house every night like some crazy obsessed stalker. The night of Kelly’s birth, he’d made a promise to protect them and still he let them drive away all because of that damned suppressant!

He should have read the fine print when Adalind came to him at the precinct with the ludicrous idea of ridding Juliette of the cursed Hexenbiest. When she tried it on herself first, something lurched inside of him, what if she’d hurt the baby, but Adalind was so determined to prove her sincerity to him. It had worked but Juliette felt differently, destroying the suppressant and throwing the remnant of their crumbling relationship away at the same time. While Juliette’s rage barrelled on like a runaway train, Adalind had made herself “human”, vulnerable, Nick had no other choice but to take her in. 

The potion worked but it was also temporary, its actual shelf life unknown. Unfortunately, it wore off too soon and his make shift family was in tatters, Nick lamented. He saw his son as often as he was able but resented how thing turned, and then there was Adalind…he didn’t know what to think. The night before Germany, she’d confessed her love. She was beautiful…so soft in his arms. Two confessions between the space of a week and still the two couldn’t be further removed from one another than if they had involved two separate women. 

Nick’s phone buzzed furiously, propelling him into the present.

Hank. “Quit stalling….”

With his focus returned, Nick made his way into the bathroom and turned the tap for his shower. Cold. It would purge his mind of the cycle of thoughts taunting his days. A case is just what he needed to snapped him out of his funk, the right sort of distraction he needed to start his morning.

*/*/*

“Have you seen him since?” Rosalee spoke as Kelly tugged on a loose strand of her hair. She rarely had it in a ponytail except on her scheduled spring-cleaning day but Adalind surprised her, showing up with Kelly for a visit at the shop.

“Yeah, just a few days ago, when I picked Kelly up before work.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.” 

Adalind knew exactly what she meant but it was safer to pretend otherwise than admit the truth anyone. She’d had enough of humiliating herself to last a lifetime. 

In the short time she lived with Nick, Adalind’s life was in an upheaval. Most of her adult life, she’d wrestled with the worst kinds of people. It cost her Diana, nearly losing her sanity, freedom and her life…so much pain, most of which was self-inflicted. Adalind had made up her mind to turn a new leaf and do right for a change but she ended up shooting herself in the foot where Nick was concerned, possibly worse off than she had started. Helplessly in love with a man who could never love her back, not as she was.

She desperately wanted to talk to someone but she had no real friends of which to speak. While Rosalee had shown her more kindness than she’d ever known (apart from Nick), she was still Nick’s closest friend above everything else, Adalind knew where her loyalties laid, a Grimm before the Hexenbiest. 

Shame washed over Adalind at the thought as she watched Rosalee giggling with her son on the seat beside her. It made her uncomfortable. She knew Rosalee meant well, she’d helped her and been there for her, more than Adalind had any right to expect. Moreover, Rosalee had revealed her own desire to make up for her part against Adalind regarding Diana’s kidnapping. The truth was, they had all been villains and been victims at one time or another, the past was past and making the best of now was what mattered. Rosalee had become her one friend, which made looking at the gift horse in the mouth a no-go area. 

So much had changed with the birth of her daughter, Diana, she’d begun feeling deeply emotions she hadn’t experienced since before her abilities first awoke within her, love, joy and now shame among a whole list of others, so unlike lust, greed, paranoia, anger and some, many tools of her “trade”. Now everything has changed, thanks largely to her children…and to Nick. 

Suddenly her mother’s reproving words rang in her head but Adalind pushed them down. She wasn’t the old Adalind, desperate for affection and hanging on to the impossible. She had learnt from her mistakes. She no longer lived with Nick and was adamant to steer clear of him except when she absolutely could not, where Kelly was concerned.

In the past months since vacating the loft, her time with Rosalee was akin to her ten-year-old self, sneaking downstairs to steal a spoonful of B&J’s chocolate fudge while Catherine was in the bath and still smearing it all over her pristine dress much to her mother’s raging fit at the discovery. As they sat in the back room of the shop, Adalind kept looking at the door, expecting Monroe to walk through any minute, apprehensive he’d mention her visit to Nick. She almost wished he would just so someone else would say his name and relieve some of the pressure building inside her. Unbeknown to Adalind, Rosalee perfectly understood her position, keenly attuned to Adalind’s tumultuous emotions radiating like a raging forest fire during the dry season. 

“…Well?” Rosalee continued without missing a beat.

“Well…nothing. Things have settled at work. I’ve been busy and Kelly seems to like my office better than I do at the moment like the view, but then again, things could always be worse…so all in all, I’m grateful,” Adalind continued with her sidestep.

“Alright, I won’t push you.” Rosalee cooed at the swaddling bundle of joy on her lap.

“Thank you,” she breathed, with more feeling than she intended.

The subject around Nick had become a dangerous slippery slope for Adalind, one she’d diligently avoided in an attempt to work him right out of her system. She’d gotten burnt one too many times when she allowed herself one moment to dream, the night before he left for Germany. She couldn’t even blame alcohol, she’d not touched a drink since learning of her pregnancy with Kelly and certainly couldn’t blames it a spell gone wrong when the suppressant was still in full effect. 

In the past, she had often played with fire and mostly at her mother’s behest and later, the Royals and every time Adalind suffered the consequences, badly so. Misplaced confidence had turned to carelessness in the Bremen Ruins, turned to desperation for Diana with the Verfluchte Zwillingsschwester and finally, stupidity in confessing her love for the Grimm of all people. Worse, nearly eight weeks since that night, she couldn’t stop feeling. 

Putting some much needed distance between them hadn’t fix things and the guilt of essentially taking his son away wrecked her constantly. He must hate her; she thought suddenly and twisted uncomfortably in her seat. No generous custody agreement could ever alleviate the pain of losing a child. She, better than anyone knew that but she had to strike out on her own, or risk things growing glacial between the two of them due to old grievances that could never truly be buried in the past. It was their innate nature built in from birth to hate one another and Kelly deserved better than having two parents being resentful and ultimately destructive to one another because nature.

So why could she not stop the longing for something as forbidden to wesen nature as the Grimm? These feelings roiling within her should have died the instant her powers returned. It was only fair. 

Adalind had searched her mother’s books desperate for a solution, a spell — anything to suppress her feelings. Nothing. Catherine sure would be proud, she thought with derision but she didn’t care. She had something far more precious that she would never trade for a second’s worth of her mother’s empty praises. Perhaps there was more than one thing to be grateful for, Adalind was finally free of her mother’s influence and it felt like stepping out into the sun after three decades of the constant yearning of her mother’s approval shackled her in the proverbial basement.   
It was glorious and all because of Nicholas Burkhardt!

Nick, she thought fondly.

No matter what she did, things always circled back to him. He being her first Grimm probably had something to do with it. He should have been nothing more than a detour to a better life, a means to an end, like getting in with the Royals or a buffer between a raging Juliette and her son’s life. Once, she’d heard Monroe talk, in passing, about fate but Adalind had never believe in any of that nonsense. Fate is what you make of it. Her mother taught her that. Her mother was dead. 

The thought of her losing her daughter because some cosmic puppeteer was pulling the strings behind the curtain infuriated her to distraction and still she fell hard for the man that played a part in the worst pain she’d ever known. Hating him should be easy, like opening one’s eyes in the morning or breathing but her heart, of its own accord, pulled her in the opposite direction, the one way she wished not to go. 

She had bared her soul to him, taking a leap into the void and he said nothing in return. She couldn’t even be disappointed because of the way he looked deep into her eyes, the way he touched her was more than enough. Hardly a week later, she told him about the suppressant and the look in his eyes flickered for a fraction of a moment with fire but not of the passion before but of something else she hadn’t seen in a long time. He had said nothing but that look had spoken a thousand words and Adalind knew what she had to do. 

“How are things at the office, now that you’re back?”

“Great,” she said half-heartedly.

“That bad huh?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting when my old boss called me up. I know he only did it because he heard I am a fully functional Biest again and he can never have enough of those but….”

“It’s not the same. You are not the same.”

The two women looked at one another with an unspoken understanding. 

Returning to work was something she’d hungered for during the slow steady stream of solitude at the loft. There wasn’t much to do once she’d fed Kelly, bathed him and laid him to sleep with Nick remained tied up with work most of the days. Rosalee was sometimes the only adult company she had, and Adalind was grateful, now more than ever when she needed a sympathetic ear. Rosalee was incredibly easy to talk to and they talked about everything, everything except for Nick.

Adalind checked the time and realised she’d stayed longer than she’d planned. She packed up their belongings and headed for the front of the store, Rosalee following suit with a sleeping Kelly in her arms. 

“Ugh, I miss this little guy already.” She said as she settled him in his car seat.

“I’m sure he had a grand time with Aunt Rosa. He’s out like a light. Thanks again for today.” 

“It was all my pleasure and please don’t be a stranger. I know you think me being Nick’s friend somehow means I cannot be yours as well but that is not the case. I enjoy our time together.”

“Me too…and I appreciate that.”

They hugged and bid one another farewell. 

As Adalind turned at the traffic light, her phone rang. The screen beside her steering wheel revealed it was Nick. Her heart lurched violently against her chest. After several more beats to calm herself, she answered.

“Hello Nick.”

“Hey.” 

Something was wrong. Nick was never much of a talker but after months of living with him, she’d learnt to read a lot from just the sound of his voice. 

“I need to see him.” He said.

This latest case must have hit a dead end.

“Okay,” she said gently and after another beat, “Give us an hour.”

*/*/*


	2. Chapter 2

Clearly, Adalind had lost her senses and her incredible weakness for that man bubbled through to the surface.

She’d originally planned to whip up a salad for one, for dinner, before that timely call from Nick. Its un-expectant suddenness had somehow caused her to make a buoyant last minute decision, ordering some takeaways for two from her favourite restaurant. Something had possessed her, since normally she diligently stuck to her rules of keeping Nick at bay; Adalind recognised the danger in playing close to that enticing Grimm flame. 

Yep, she definitely lost her mind as her body buzzed with heightened illicit expectation. She forced herself to keep a cool head. It was just dinner, an act of kindness, not a date, a once off, never to be repeated offer, she reasoned. 

Adalind shyly peeked at the rear view mirror as her hand moved to her unruly hair and immediately chided herself for the love-struck actions, duly reminding herself she wasn’t going on a date with Nick Burkhardt. Therefore, it didn’t matter what her physical appearance was, she resolved and returned her focus to the road ahead of her. It didn’t matter, not one bit, she thought helplessly. 

At the next set of traffic lights, Adalind opened her glove compartment and took out her Handy Bristle hairbrush…. 

The sun had already set as Adalind pulled into her street and in the distance saw the familiar Land Cruiser parked on the street beside her driveway. “There’s Dada’s car,” and there he was, leaning nonchalantly against the hood of his car. Nervously, she engaged her son in mindless babble rather than acknowledge the wreckage Nick wrought of her emotions at the prospect of seeing his beautifully stubbled face. At this point, she was worse than a teenager was from the way she acted at the mere thought of him. Get a grip, Adalind! 

Adalind slowly pulled into her driveway, turned off her engine and took a moment to breath. He was only there for his son. When she looked up, Nick was already standing by the passenger side of her car, waiting for her to open the backseat door to his son. Not wanting to delay their reunion any longer, Adalind unlocked the door. With little to no effort, Nick pulled Kelly out of his seat and her heart lurched painfully against her chest at the sight of a father giving his son a kiss and bear hug as if they hadn’t seen one another in centuries. It was hard not to admire Nick’s devotion towards his son, something that gnawed at Adalind for the decision she had made in leaving the loft. 

“Hello Nick,” She said dryly, affecting an image of calmness in his presence. Even in the dimmed light of day, her eyes could make out how haggard he looked but she kept her comments to herself. She saw the frustration etched all over his face and his clothes hung a little too loosely for comfort. It was no longer her problem, watching over him, she tried to tell herself, and still she bought him dinner…. Whenever Nick was neck deep in a case that he couldn’t solve, he was too often negligent of the little things in life, as if he was a machine running on nothing but oil and water. Well he wasn’t. 

“Hey. I’m sorry to come here so late. I know it’s not what we agreed on—” 

“Nonsense, he is your son and you are more than welcome to see him whenever you need.” Cold comfort that was, she thought, but she bit her tongue and grabbed the bags in the back of the car, including the takeaways. “I got us some Mexican, you are welcome to stay, you like.” 

“Thank you.” He said and helped her into her sparsely furnished two-bedroom-two-bath Craftsman house. Most of her belongings and that of her mother’s had long been auctioned to settle old debts before Diana was born, and since Kelly came into her life, she’d made no time to furnish her new home barring her office wardrobe, relegating the task to the far back of her mind. Otherwise, the house brimmed to the rafters with Kelly’s belongings, modest and designer, she couldn’t help it now that she could afford buy whatever she wanted regardless of the price tag. 

Once inside, Adalind left father and son happily alone in the living room to prepare Kelly's dinner and dish up the food for Nick. Despite her focus on the task in front of her, she couldn’t help gleaning the thundering well of aggravation raging inside him. A rarity for her…sensing other’s emotions so easily, one of the “perks” of being what she was. The heightened intuition is what sometimes made it easier to manipulate people, detecting the weak spots to bend them to their will, but that was never her specialty or else her life would look vastly different. 

Adalind had to learn the hard way that her “gift” was the furthest thing from being one, to sense more than she had bargained for, as on their last night together. Adalind had sensed Nick's confusion, fear but mostly, his anger and it had frightened her. She thought she was strong enough to deal with whatever he threw her way but she wasn’t. She was weak with longing and couldn’t handle the rejection so she struck first. This “gift” was, in reality, a curse, that forced her to take back the reins of her life for better or for worse. 

A sudden boom of laughter cracked the air around her from the other room; clearly, the two Burkhardt boys were having the time of their lives and for the first time since she returned, Adalind was at ease.  
“When did he get so boisterous all of a sudden? He won’t sit still.” Nick called out to Adalind from the lounge.

She smiled at the conjured image of Nick chasing after his belligerent son all over her living room floor. Her heart just about burst with joy, she had missed this, being together as a family. 

“I think he gets from you or wait…maybe he gets it from me. You did chase me around for quite a bit a few years back.” She laughed before shame arrested the mirth bubbling in her chest at the reminder of their—her chequered past. 

“He gets it from both of us,” he said without missing a beat, laughter in his voice, as if acknowledging she’d done her fair share of chasing him in times recent. Adalind could feel Nick’s eyes on her back as if willing her to face him. She didn’t.

“Maybe he’s trying to tell us something,” He added before Kelly drew back his attention away from her rigid back. Adalind exhaled deeply; unaware she’d held her breath during that short but charged exchange with the Grimm she loved. She needed to get away suddenly, to get some air, and clear the heady fog clouding her mind fast. 

To her relief, Kelly’s food was ready, sensing her escape well at hand. She picked up both dishes and headed into the dining area, “Dinner’s served.” she said in a pitched tone. 

With Kelly in his arms, Nick joined her at the table and noticed she’d only set up for just the two of them, “You’re not joining us?” he exclaimed as he secured Kelly into his seat. Adalind couldn’t tell if she’d heard disappointment in his voice or not. 

“It’s not necessary. I have a backlog of work I need to get through. I’ll just eat in my study and leave you two guys to yourselves.” She said, averting his piercing eyes and turned to leave but Nick quickly pulled back her hand, stopping her in her tracks. It wasn’t much of a grip, a few of their digits curled around one another, barely intertwined…the first time they’d physically touched in months. 

Adalind’s heart began to race wildly. She felt the steady beating of his through her fingers.

“Stay….” She heard him say gently.

“I ca—” 

“Please….” He cut her off before she could deny his request. 

She dared to her eyes to his and she knew right there and then, she could never say no to him. Nick took a step towards her, towering over her and making it impossible for her to escape to the safety of her bedroom as her head swirled, intoxicated by his rugged presence. Finally, unable to take any more, she willed herself to look away from the intensity in his eyes, took a deep breath for courage and instead inhaling his heady scent, rendering her knees weak with want. She wanted him too much for her own good. A Grimm. She felt the first tingles of a woge encroaching at the seams before she shut it down, somehow not brought on by fear but by something else entirely different, shocking, a desperate need to kiss his full lips. 

Adalind shook her head as if it would automatically clearly all that went on inside of her, “Alright,” she relented against her better judgement. 

“Thank you,” he said, a gentle grazing the edges of his kiss worthy lips. 

It’s just dinner, she reminded herself…dinner with the father of her child and nothing more than that, she thought, as she broke free of his spell to prepare her own plate in the kitchen. 

So much churned inside her; Adalind could feel herself, a pitiful boat, caught in a tumult of emotions threatening to sink her quickly lest she fight desperately to clear to safety. It was so easy at the loft, even at the start of it all when they were nothing more than strangers-recently enemies who danced around each other for Kelly’s sake. For the most part, they knew where things stood between them. She couldn’t help but long for the simplicity of that time. 

Adalind wearily made her way to the dining table where they sat down together as a family and yet not quite like it used to be. 

*/*/*

He didn’t know what had compelled him or had driven him to touch her. He only knew that it was urgent, to the point that it overpowered his common sense. He’d seen the look in her eyes before, one determined to walk away from him yet again and it had seared something inside of him and he could not bear its repeat. For the first time in his life, he envied his friend Monroe, or at the least wished he had a silver tongue, anything to help him put to words what he so desperately wanted…needed. 

There were times in his life words had failed him when he needed to articulate his thoughts and feelings regarding everything he experienced. Juliette is one such example. He remembered clearly the night his aunt showed up at his door with the most fantastical of news he’d ever heard. He thought she was a bit delusional, likely suffering negative effects from the medication she took to fight off her cancer only for him to discover Aunt Marie was quite lucid and not crazy, but that meant he had to tell Juliette what he’d learned of his heritage and that was just crazy. According to her, either that or let Juliette go. 

So much went wrong in too many lives because of the choices he had made that night, but then again, something right had come out of it as well, Kelly and to his surprise, Adalind, he thought without shame.  
Now the two of them sat across one another in pregnant silence with Kelly, babbling obliviously between them. Nick had asked her to stay, essentially, to have dinner with him, yet beyond that…nothing. Not the words at the tip of his tongue left unsaid when he called her earlier that evening. Nothing on the throbbing, but delicious sensation her fingertips invoked when he took her petite hand in his only moments ago. He shifted his weight uncomfortably in his chair, his lower extremities out of her sight, thankfully, he thought.

Nick spooned another mouthful of broccoli and sweet potato puree for Kelly, lifting it to his son’s lips and stole a quick glance in Adalind’s direction, making a hash of it when their eyes locked suddenly, arresting him on the spot. Adalind turned a pretty shade of pink and promptly dropped her gaze back to the Mexican dish before her, as if he’d caught her doing something naughty when it was his thoughts teetering dangerously between what’s innocent and what clearly was not. 

More silence, except for the clanking of stainless steel on expensive, fine crockery and Kelly’s happy sounds, precursors to actual words. Neither did anything to stem the heat building around Nick’s collar and other places, all of which now became unbearable unless he did something about it. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked suddenly, catching him by surprise. 

“Excuse me, pardon?” He didn’t expect that sudden icebreaker. 

“I mean the real reason you’re here, other than the obvious,” she said, her eyes landing squarely on their son. “Is it work…or the other thing?” 

…His grimm-ing. 

“The former or maybe the latter…or maybe it’s both, we don’t know yet.” 

“And that’s frustrating you.” 

It wasn’t a question. 

“It’s been over two weeks and we’re no closer to catching this guy than at the beginning. I’ve never come across a crime scene so immaculately ‘wiped clean,’ literally no trace of DNA found other than the victim’s.  
The owner of the dog hotel on Raleigh Str discovered her in the reception area. There wasn’t as much as a stray dog hair on any surface of that crime scene.” He exhaled, releasing some of the pent up feelings of aimlessness that had kept him company since he and Hank crossed beyond the first 48hours without any leads. 

“…Nothing, not even in the surrounding areas?” 

“We combed through that place thoroughly. There was no fingerprint. No handprint. No footprint; nothing!” 

“Is that normal?” 

“No, not here in Portland and nothing so low profile.” 

“What does that mean?” She asked him openly, her attention now focused solely on him and not Roci’s special for the night. 

Kelly let out a yelp at his father’s negligence f his duties to feed him. 

“Sorry little guy, here you go,” Nick obliged him, spooning another helping to Kelly, feeling a little guilty that he’d forgotten him even if it was for a just a moment. 

Adalind laughed, came around the table to placate their son with professions of adoration and adulation for their unconscionable behaviour towards him, much to Kelly’s giddy delight, his petulant tantrum now past. Nick couldn’t help but note Adalind had that effect on their son; sure, they both struggled at the beginning but now, no longer. She tilted her head in a questioning gesture towards Nick and he handed her the half-eaten bowl to carry on where he’d left off, her eyes solely on her son and not him. Nick pondered at the way her face lit up in that moment, wilfully losing himself in the nearness of her, her carefree and beautiful countenance.

It shouldn’t have surprised Nick at all how easily this came upon him. Adalind Schade was a great mother…and a very beautiful woman, she always was, going as far back the first time he saw her face before she woged unexpectedly at his intrusive scrutiny but things were always complicated between them. As things, stood, it appeared as though nothing had changed. It should have been a relief to him. It wasn’t and treading those waters frightened him somewhat. 

There have only been a handful of times in Nick’s life where the circumstances around him had left him floundering about as if her were about to drown, the loss of his parents when he was young…the death of his aunt and mother. He’d felt so lost, as the earth shifted furiously beneath him. He’d felt that uncertainty the day he found out he would become a father but he’d found his footing quickly thereafter, thankfully. The sun had shone in his life for the first time in a long time the moment he held Kelly in his arms, his heart swelling up so much, it nearly burst with unspeakable joy. For a while, he’d lost so much but Kelly and Adalind had brought him, dare he think it, happiness…. 

Kelly finished his dinner and Adalind burped and cleaned him up before she passed him off to Nick, but Kelly had other idea, clamouring for his favourite toy instead. Unfortunately, the vigour was rather short lived as Kelly’s eyes drooped lazily shut. 

“It looks like someone’s already turned in for the night.” 

“Um—sorry,” she said apologetically. 

“It’s okay, I’m glad for the time we had.” 

“Bye Kel’.” He gave his son his goodbye kiss and handed him back to his mother. 

“Say goodnight to Dada,” she chimed but Kelly was already far gone to comply, and they both disappeared down the hallway into the master bedroom they shared together just as at the loft but only without Nick following this time round. He tried not to feel the sting of that realisation and failed miserably. 

For two whole months, they had lived apart and instead of it getting easier to bear, it grew harder for Nick. He hated saying goodbye. 

Adalind was gone for no more than ten minutes yet it felt like a lifetime, enough time to wrestle with himself a hundred times over on whether he should make a quick and quite exit or stay. He hadn’t come to a decision when Adalind joined him at the table, clearing away the empty dishes. 

“I should probably get going myself,” he said, testing the waters a bit.

“Oh, you don’t have to.” She said suddenly as she walked back into the dining area, with a bottle of beer on one hand and a glass of deep red wine in the other and the two of them stood awkwardly, facing one another. Adalind turned a warm shade under Nick’s gaze, a peculiar match to his own. 

“Are you sure?” He said as calmly as he could muster under the circumstance. 

“Perhaps it’s not in my place anymore but I thought maybe you could use a listening ear…I mean with work.” She added quickly before handing him his beer. 

He bit back his disappointment and did as she bid him.

The instant he opened his mouth, the words poured out like a flood on their own. Talking about his cases was so much easier to do than talking about important things, such as his feelings. He opened up to her, something that had come to him quite fluidly at the loft once they stopped dancing around each other nervously. He began from the top, at the discovered of the body of an unknown woman first thing Monday morning. The killer had sawn off the victim’s head, as well as her hands. They were missing from the scene. The woman had no ID, no cell phone or anything that would help in her identification. Even though they’d searched the missing persons database, they’d come up with nothing. Adalind listened attentively, only asking her questions when there was nothing more to say. 

He explained that without the woman’s ID, the owners and workers’ alibis checking out, the case had slammed into a very thick brick wall, which refused to budge. Their list of suspects was non-existent, let alone any viable witnesses. There wasn’t even a security camera to make his job of catching the killer easier. The case had grown cold, which he really hated. Nick had always prided himself with his case record, solving a case meant less bad guys hurting more people because he’d put them behind bars. As for his other job, he did his utmost to bring those responsible for such atrocities to justice, the “law” kind and not so much as his ancestors’ kind of justice, not unless the situation pushed him to act less a cop and more of a Grimm. 

“It’s no wonder you haven’t slept.” She said. 

“Is it that obvious?” 

“Yeah…. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of much help.” 

“Trust me, you did much more than I expected.” He paused, “I really appreciate it,” he admitted freely.

Something made him turn to look at the clock in far back wall in the kitchen and he regretted it immediately. It was late, well past midnight. They were both surprised at how quickly the time passed. Reluctantly, he played with his car keys, “Thanks again for tonight,” he said as he forced himself to his feet. 

“It was my pleasure,” she said softly as she lead him towards the front door and out onto the porch. 

Under the soft moon light, he dared to take one last look into her big, cerulean eyes, beautiful. Regretfully, he bid her a dreaded goodbye.

“Good night Nick,” she sighed. 

With heavy footsteps, he walked away into the cold, dark and lonely night. 

*/*/*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have an idea about this where this story is headed, how well I execute it, remains to be seen. Tell me all your thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

_“These keys lead to nothing but death. We both know that. Many powerful and dangerous people will do anything to get their hands on these. It's not worth it!” her voice cracked with emphatic declaration. “This is a fantasy Nick, that someone had 800 years ago.”_

_She really didn’t want him to go to Germany, and for a fleeting moment, he actually considered staying put._ Why after all these years did the keys suddenly fall into his lap? 

_“Adalind, I…this might be a waste of my time, but I have to go; my aunt gave me one of these keys. She believed in it. It almost took her life and I owe it to her…you….” He grunted and left the rest unsaid._

_“I probably owe it to her too,” she sighed with resignation and turned away from him._

_Nick cursed himself for being unable to say exactly what he meant without inflicting her pain. He wanted to make her understand but he remained plastered to the concrete floor, ashamed he was unable to articulate himself better. He didn’t mean to bring up his aunt, especially as some card to play to get what he wanted. In the short time since Kelly’s birth, they’d stopped playing games with one another. Instead of driving each other crazy due to cabin fever, they’d grown close…closer than close and the truth was that Nick didn’t actually want to go Germany. Unfortunately, his life had become more about doing what was necessary and less about him doing or getting what he wanted._

_“When are you leaving?” She faced him, her lower lip trembling at the last uttered word._

_“…Tomorrow. Monroe’s coming with and Rosalee will be here with you and Kelly while I’m gone. Look, I know you're worried…”_

_“Yeah, I am,” her nervous fidgeting increased a fraction more._ This was more than worry, something else was happening here, _he thought. It sometimes unnerved him how he could read her without much effort and at other times, he rather enjoyed it but this wasn’t one of those times considering his own anxiety about what he might find in Germany, if anything at all._

_“…But you're probably right. It's probably nothing…. But what if I'm wrong and they buried is something evil, something they never wanted found, and for good reason?” She twitched and heaved uncomfortably and woged suddenly. He didn’t move, or attempt to, his eyes transfixed on the woman before him. Gone was the soft, sun-kissed, but mournful expression, replaced by deathlike façade but no less emotional._

_They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity and for whatever reason, Adalind didn’t woge back._

“I’m sorry,” _her drooped shoulders and downcast face seemed to say, her exposed state otherwise rendering her speechless._

_“Well, then they wouldn't have made a map. They would have just destroyed it.” He said; a miserable attempt for him to lighten the mood, anything to assuage Adalind._

_“What if it couldn't be destroyed?” The Hexenbiest countered._

_“Then they would have just buried it.”_ He was being a smartass, he knew it, but he didn’t know what else to say. 

_“I know I can't keep you from going. It's something you have to do. But I also know there's a chance that you won't come back.” She stepped towards him._

_“Adalind…” he shortened the remaining distance, wanting to take her in his arms but he didn’t. They had never before crossed that line. One kiss (or two) is all that went down between them, outside of Kelly._ Curse it! Why was everything so complicated between them? 

_“Nick…” she inhaled._

_“Adalind…”He exhaled. He felt like an idiot._ Surely, he had more words in his vocabulary than just her name. He rather liked saying her name but that was beside the point. 

_“Nick,” she repeated once more but with careful emphasis, as if measuring how to proceed. “I…”_

_His ears pricked up. Her heart was racing._

_Adalind raised her hand and rested it over his chest, his heart beating furiously against the palm of her withered hand._

_“I can't let you go without you knowing how I, a Hexenbiest, feel about you, a Grimm. It’s crazy, maybe even suicidal; after all, we have a history but this may very well be the last time we’re together…like this and you have to know. I don't care if this is a mistake of epic proportions but I love you Nicholas Burkhardt. I don’t know when or how, only that it’s real and I can’t shut it off any longer.” She said breathlessly, looking him dead in the eyes so he couldn’t mistake her candour and woged back. Nick, without wasting another second, pounced on her and desperately possessing her lower lip in his, devouring her. It had been an eternity since they last shared a kiss. She tasted divine and he was hungry._

_She sighed sweetly against his lips, “Mm…Nick…”_

Nick? 

_“Hmm-mm, less talking and more—”_

“Nick, hey _sleeping beauty_ we have to get going, Wu’s got us an early Christmas gift!” 

_Hank?_

Adalind’s lips vanished into the ether, replaced by the stale taste of the Italian from the night before; empty packaging sprawled carelessly across his desk. He grimaced. He was dreaming of her again and his partner was the last face he wanted to see first thing in the morning. 

“Hey,” he greeted Hank with a long stretch of his arms over his head, around and back again. 

“I was going to say rough night but then again, it looks like someone’s happy to see me.” 

“What?” Nick looked confused. 

“We got ourselves a witness, finally but maybe you should have a cold shower and freshen up first,” Hank made a quick head gesture. “I know I’m good looking but—” 

Realising what Hank hinted at, “Hilarious,” said Nick, not appreciating the ribbing at all. “What’s this about a witness?” 

“Yeah, a homeless guy from Morrison Bridge.” 

“Morrison? But our vic was found On Raleigh Street, what could he have possibly seen?” 

“Maybe we should ask him and find out.” 

“Fine, I got your point. Just give me ‘twenty’.” He tsked and pushed back his chair much to his irritation, not sure whether with himself or with Hank. 

Fifteen minutes later, he joined his partner and the supposed witness in the interrogation room. 

It was a short interview. Their one and only witness, Wally Simmons, was an opioid addict and allegedly, on the night in question, he’d exhausted his stash and turned liberally to alcohol. Wally had been certain he’d seen the victim at least one whole day before the night of her death. She came out of a nightclub near Field Park with another unidentified woman, or perhaps it was a man Wally wasn’t certain. “You can’t tell for sure these days,” he burped pungent breath into the confined space of the interrogation room. It was a cold night and he cared more about other things, he insisted.

Nick was unimpressed, “You’re wasting our time Wally,” he interjected in the middle of Wally’s tale of getting drunk and high.

“I’m telling you what I know…so how about that reward?” 

“What reward?” Nick’s mood darkened further. 

“I thought…don’t you guys give out rewards for people coming forward with information?” 

“Not today,” said Nick curtly before dismissing the man from his sight, much to Hank’s surprise, and not the good kind. 

*/*/*

Later, “So what was that?” asked his partner from across his desk. 

“A lead…maybe nothing.” 

“We’ll table that for a moment. What I’m talking about is before that.” 

Nick knew exactly what Hank was asking and he was in no mood to share. “It’s this case, man. Today was supposed to be a win but I’m not so sure.” He said in an attempt to keep Hank from prying any further. 

“Look, I didn’t want to say anything before. It’s not really my place, or maybe it is. I am your partner but I am also your friend and this friend is telling you, you’ve been off your game lately. I know Adalind moving out and taking Kelly away was gonna be rough but we knew that it was going to happen sooner rather than later. Moreover, you’ve turned this sorry place into your own personal bed and breakfast. Have some dignity, is the loft not working out for you anymore?”

Nick darkened even more.

“What’s really going on with Nick, and don’t you dare say it’s this case because I know it’s not!” 

Nick looked at Hank, considering whether to answer his friend. He trusted the man with his life every single day. Between him and Monroe, Nick couldn’t ask for better friends, both loyal to a fault but while he could share everything with Monroe, Hank was a different matter altogether. He was a Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen, so it wasn’t about hiding his Grimm from his cop partner but rather keeping him in the dark about one particular wesen, Adalind. 

“Is this about Kelly? Is the little guy alright?” 

“No-no, Kelly is fine. In fact he’s great.” 

“Then what the heck is wrong with you? It’s not the case. It’s not Kelly, then who is it and please don’t say Adalind.” 

Nick pressed his lips into a grim line. 

“Uh-man! It _is_ Adalind.” 

“I didn’t say anything.” He countered. 

“You didn’t have to; your twitchy brow did all the talking for you.” 

“It’s not what you think.” 

“Oh-please I can count on two fingers the number of times I didn’t wake up with one of my exes on my mind soon after a broke up.” 

“Well we didn’t actually break up because we were never together to begin with.” 

“Mm-hmm.” Hank didn’t buy it. “Adalind’s finally out of your hair; I thought you’d be celebrating your freedom. I know I would!” 

Nick squirmed. He didn’t want to keep this conversation going in the direction it was heading. Hank never forgot all that Adalind did despite all his claims to forgiving her for Kelly’s sake. Nick understood how difficult it was for Hank being around Adalind; hence, he’d restricted their interactions to a bare minimum, their one dinner together at the loft the only exception. Nick only sharing with Monroe about his one night with Adalind was because he knew Hank wouldn’t understand and they would never have this conversation; s _o much for that plan…._

“Oh-no, you slept with her didn’t you?” Hank sneered. 

“It-it only happened once,” he lowered his voice by an octave. He didn’t want to broadcast his personal life to the whole precinct, especially with the Captain only a few feet away in his office, the absolute worst-case scenario. 

“Oh my word…it’s actually worse than I thought. It’s why you just about chopped off our only witness on this mess of a case. She got in too deep and now you’re a mess. Not even with Juliette were you like this.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nick bristled.

This is why he didn’t tell Hank _everything_. 

“I mean you’re losing it over _that_ woman,” Hank just about spat.

“ _That_ woman is the mother of my child.” He growled and took a breath, not want to get upset. 

“And whose fault is that?” 

“Come again?” His anger, quickly rising back to the surface. 

“Look, I’m sorry that came out wrong. It’s just—” 

“I’m going to stop you right there. We’re partners and we’re friends. We’ve been through a lot together over the year, _all_ of us. This job…we’re trained to see things in black and white and that’s all right but the world _I_ inhabit, is infinitely far from.” He counted his words carefully; it would not help to stoke the fire that could easily raise their friendship to the ground. Not too long ago, he was on the other side of this conversation but things change.

“Man, I’m sorry. I guess I just don’t understand how you….” Hank said, still unimpressed with what he heard.

“Like I said, I only happened once and won’t be happen again.” 

“Who are you trying to convince?” He asked, the venom now gone from his tone. “Is that what you want?” 

That was a loaded question; one Nick lacked the courage to confront.

“It is what it is.” 

It wasn’t an answer but it would have to suffice for now. He didn’t want to think too hard on Hank’s words, that Adalind was in too deep in his system. It would explain his dreams for one thing. If he’s not dreaming about her singing to Kelly, it’s about everything else between and it scared him senseless. He was reliving their time together but with her in woge, as if he didn’t already know her abilities had returned. He didn’t want to think what any of it meant. Hank had his issues and it was easy for him to blow things out of proportion but he was also right, not even with Juliette did Nick’s life deteriorate to this extent and showing no signs of abating. He hasn’t been at peace or rested at ease since Adalind left the loft. He looked like the walking dead. Felt like it too and that possibly interfered with his work, something he couldn’t afford now. 

“Hey guys,” It was Wu. “I know Wally may not be exactly what we hoped for but here are some composite sketches of our potential vic, and maybe killer or maybe another witness, who knows at this stage.” He handed his device with the images to Hank, who then passed it on to Nick. 

“And we still think this guy is legit? He camps under Morrison, ends up east of the river where he supposedly saw our vic with a woman, or maybe a man at around 1AM, all while drunk out of his mind. Don’t forget the crime scene is in a third location, north of the Precinct.” 

“It’s thin, but it’s more than what we had this time yesterday.” 

“Does Wally have an alibi, maybe he’s our ‘perp’, and he can’t remember?” 

“He doesn’t strike me as someone that would decapitate a woman using a sharp, surgical like blade with one strike. He could barely stand up straight.” 

“Under the influence of a powerful narcotic, he could. Our vic’s hands are missing, maybe she put up a fight, scrapping off a good chunk of DNA, and the killer sawed off her hands to cover his tracks.” 

“If that was the case, we should have seen some on Wally’s face, neck and there was nothing. 

“Yeah and his alibi checked out. It turns out he did get his fix that night; several of his buddies corroborated his whereabouts on the night of the killing. Sorry fellas.” He said and left the two detectives to mull over the latest developments. 

“Let’s run these against the missing person’s database and see if anything pops.” 

“One can only hope,” Nick pulled up his chair and clicked his computer back to life. 

*/*/* 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be parts that are different or don't happen at all from this point forward (major S5 & S6 plots). I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, I want to keep this story as contained as possible. All comments are appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

It was just one of those days for Adalind. Her boss, Harrison Berman wouldn’t stop needling her over some contract deadlines. The summer heat made Kelly uncharacteristically restless and he refused to be mollified during one of her meetings with a very important client, who claimed they didn’t mind at all but Adalind knew better. It’s one of her conditions upon her return to Berman, Rautbort, and Associates. Adalind wanted to have Kelly close to her after the Royals dealt Nick a fatal blow, coming after his mother and her Diana. Berman had been so desperate for a Hexenbiest he was ready to give Adalind one of his kidneys and parts of his liver and lung among other things just to get her back on board. Adalind settled on a very healthy six-figure salary and substantial compensation packages. 

The firm hadn’t recovered their “loss” against the queen Mellifer from years ago. Still, Adalind rued the return of her powers, considering what she lost in exchange but work was work. Her old firm was the only place that opened their doors without hesitation, any other firm; she’d need to jump through too many hoops to establish herself after three years without any practice. For that, she was appreciative towards old Harrison welcoming her back with open arms.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. She was a great lawyer but she wasn’t an idiot to think it’s why she got a very plush package in her old stomping ground. In addition, Adalind could sense the open resentment, like the insufferable summer heat, from some of her co-workers blaming her for usurping a long awaited promotion no longer up for grabs. She didn’t know which would drive her up the walls first, Berman asking her to use her abilities to either secure big clients or fudging the numbers “just a little,” or Janet Mullen and Wilhelmina Strong staring daggers at her at the water cooler while putting her private life on blast for the office gossip. She needed to escape and the park was the perfect place. She grabbed Kelly and strolled down the passage, head held high out of the office, “I’m taking an extended lunch break,” she declared without so much as a goodbye. _That’s right Addy, let’s add more fuel to the fire for those hateful wenches,_ she thought as the elevator closed behind her and Kelly.

*/*/*

Laurelhurst was bustling. The blazing Summer heat had brought people out in numbers, much to Adalind’s chagrin. There was a particular couple on a picnic blanket at a distance to her right, staring saccharinely in each other’s eyes, making her sick to the stomach and to her annoyance, all benches looked occupied, making Adalind regret even coming out in the oppressive heat. She spotted a seat opening in front of the children sandbox, and made a beeline towards it where a blonde woman already sat, alone. She determined she’d readily suffer the company of a complete stranger than return to the office for another helping of misery.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked the woman before her. _Please, say no…please, say no._ “Not at all,” replied the woman, dressed casually but very high end for a day in the park. Adalind could spot a Stella McCartney’s vintage blouse a mile away, paired with washed D&G jeans and open toe leather ankle boots… _a kindred_ , Adalind thought wryly. Satisfied with what she saw, she secured Kelly’s stroller on the vacant side of the bench and took her seat.

“Which one is yours?” she asked her companion.

“Excuse me?”

Adalind pointed towards a merry band of toddlers playing in the dirt before them.

In response, the woman gave a delightful laugh, “Oh goodness me, no, none of them actually, but I am on babysitting duty, that one…the girl in the blue.”

“Ah, she looks like she already has the boys wrapped around her cute little finger.”

“My brother says she takes after her aunt and I have to agree wholeheartedly,” the stranger gave a knowing smile.

Adalind reciprocated with her own smile before tending to a fussy Kelly still in his stroller. For several minutes, they battled for dominance as she tried to calm his rambunctious state. The open skies clearly hadn’t helped his state of unease. Adalind lifted him to her lap, hoping it would do the trick.

“The little guy’s having a bad day, I can relate to those.”

“His mother’s not having it any better at this stage.”

“Rough day at work?”

“Something like that,” said Adalind while bouncing Kelly over her knees.

“I don’t know how anyone does it. I love me niece to pieces but I know I could never do what Cindy; my in-law does twenty-four-seven. I can babysit to my heart’s content but at the end of the day, I hand her over and I’m happy to be relieved of any further responsibilities.”

“Oh it’s hard, sometimes, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love this guy too much to imagine my life without him in my life.” She gave Kelly a quick peck over his fading blonde streaks.

“What about his father or is it ‘mother’? Never mind, don’t answer that. How embarrassing, sticking my nose too far into your business and we don’t even know each other’s names. It’s just…looking at you, the way you’re dressed, you don’t strike me as—”

“As the motherly kind? Yeah, I kind of get that a lot these days so it’s no biggie. We’re a team, me and Kel.”

“The father?”

“Oh, my son. Kelly’s his name. I think he’s feeling so restless today because of the stress at work. I’m a lawyer.”

“Ooh…my condolences.” She grimaced.

“I get that a lot too,” laughed Adalind. “And the name is Adalind, that’s me.”

“Vera.” The woman responded. “It can’t be all that bad, you have him,” she said as she pointed at Kelly.

“Yeah but his father’s a cop so he kind of had no choice in the matter.”

“Ah, cop and a lawyer, kismet!”

 _If only…_.

The stranger flushed a fiery red. Adalind had voiced her thoughts aloud, revealing a little more than she’d intended, embarrassing them both.

Her handbag began to vibrate, followed by the ringing of her cell phone, _saved by the bell, literally._

“That’s my cue,” said the stranger as she picked up her purse, bid Adalind goodbye and left her to answer her call.

It was Rosalee. “What are you doing for lunch?”

“Having it with you!”

“Perfect answer.” Rosalee told Adalind where to meet for their luncheon before hanging up, a bistro on 13th Ave, SE.

“Alright Kel, playtime is over, not that you did much of that since we got here.” Adalind packed up immediately and turned towards her car, had she spared a second more, she’d have noticed the little girl in blue still rolling about in the dirt, her “aunt”, nowhere in sight.

*/*/*

They met at a quaint little teahouse not far from the Spice Shop. Rosalee’s continuing presence in Adalind’s life had become a source of relief and a piece of joy in the Hexenbiest’s life. It was unexpected but no less appreciated now that she needed someone by her side, no strings attached.

“You seem a little more weathered since the last time we spoke. Is Harrison on your case about using your abilities again?” the Fuchsbau asked, concern written all over her face.

“I swear if I didn’t need a job as quickly as I did a couple of months back, I’d tell him to shove it. I can’t quit now, at least not for the next several months without burying myself into a deeper hole that the one I started with and B.R.A. can’t fire me and risk a wrongful termination suit. Despite all my resistance, I’ve worked harder than during my prior employment at that company or any of his current associates. We’re both sort of stuck together until my probation period/contract expires, after which, I’m gone.”

“Have you thought of maybe going out on your own, starting your own firm? At least that way, you’ll get to dictate the cases you take on and work ethic.”

“Ha! My work ethic…” Adalind laughed mirthlessly. Rosalee couldn’t miss the derision in her friend’s voice.

“Why do you keep doing that, knocking yourself down so much?”

“I don’t….” she lied.

“Yes you do, I know because I used to do the same thing too and for the longest time, until I realised couldn’t let my past mistakes dictate my present…and future.”

Adalind shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She knew exactly where Rosalee was heading with this line of conversation. They’ve been down this road countless time before and Adalind had always successfully shut it down before it got far.

“So when are you and Monroe going to start trying for your own?”

“Oh, is that how it is, trying to deflect by throwing shade my way.” Rosalee responded with surprise.

“I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. It was rude of me.”

“I’m a big girl Addy, I can take it. And to answer your question, yes, we are trying but it’s a roll of the dice. You know how it is. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t. We just don’t now at the moment.”

“Now I really feel like a royal Class A ‘bitch’ for that thoughtless barb, Rosalee, I’m so sorry,” apologised Adalind sincerely.

It wasn’t difficult to grasp the unfairness of her friend’s situation. While Adalind loves both her children to death, the circumstance around their conception oftentimes leaves her rankled. Although she had tried to fall pregnant with Diana, it was for selfish reasons, like getting her powers back after her tussle with Nick in the Bremen Ruins and ultimately, she’d lost Diana because of her actions. Moreover, so much pain, vengeance and deception surrounded Kelly’s conception but he was her little miracle. Somehow, she and Nick managed to move past some of the destruction her actions wrought, not all but some. It gave her some peace knowing Kelly would never suffer for her countless mistakes.

“It’s not your fault Monroe’s a Blutbad and I’m Fuchsbau, so close yet so far.” Rosalee’s voice brought her back into the present.

“These things have a way of working themselves out.” She said with understanding.

“I know. I’m just running out of patience. Monroe says we’ll be fine…”

“And he’s right, you both managed to get this far, you may as well go the distance,” said Adalind as she tried to cheer Rosalee.

“I could say the same about you and Nick.” Rosalee segued back to Adalind’s least favourite topic.

“No, that’s not…we are nothing like you two.” Adalind pointed out deprecatingly.

“Who says anything about being like us? You’re you and he’s…Nick.”

“Exactly my point! For one thing, you didn’t try to destroy Monroe and almost succeed.”

“‘Almost’ being the operative word here. Nick is doing fine….” Rosalee dragged the last syllable suspiciously.

“His mother and Juliette beg to differ.”

“I knew you would say that.”

“Well, it’s the truth.”

“Only a part of it but you’re so set on making yourself miserable that you are missing the forest from the trees, or however that saying goes.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” _Fine, she’d humour her friend for the day and maybe after, they’ll drop whatever this was and move on from talks about her and Nick._

“…That Nick, yes, _that_ Nick, is in love you,” she said emphatically, as if there was another Nick between them.

“How many of these mimosas have you drunk since we got here because you’re clearly smashed to even think that?”

“Oh, I am as sober as a judge, I’ll have you. I know what I’m talking about even if you refuse to see it.”

“If that were really the case, don’t you think I’d be the first person to know this?”

“Not as long as you keep shutting Nick off, you wouldn’t”

“You forget, I sort of know what a Nick in love looks like, I saw him with Juliette.”

“Yeah, well I can’t deny that but it still doesn’t change the fact that that man’s in love you. Think of it this way, the man that loved Juliette years ago, is not the same man that love you today.”

Adalind smiled with derision, not buying what Rosalee was selling.

“You remember when you were young and all you worried about was little Tommy from next door giving you a kiss. You thought of nothing else but what that would feel like, you nearly passed out with excitement.”

“It was Ronnie, but continue….”

“Okay, Ronnie. You practically dreamed of that kiss every single day until one day, you woged for the first time and suddenly little Ronnie is a snack in more ways than one.”

“Wow Rosa, that’s not helping me see things differently at all.”

“Let me finish. I have known Nick relatively since the beginning, around the time he got his Grimm sight. I know what it was like for him and Juliette. For a while everything was like that innocent…hopeful but then he’d already experienced his first woge and that changed everything.”

Adalind nearly spat her drink as she choked. “Excuse me…sorry,” and gulped down hard.

“Are you okay?” asked Rosalee, concerned. Her little allegory abruptly ended. Relieved Rosalee was oblivious to how closely she’d hit the mark; Adalind cleared her throat of the drink that went down the wrong pipe. Outside of Nick, she and Sean, nobody else knew she was Nick’s first woge.

“No matter how hard they tried, Nick and Juliette could never go back to that innocent time of their relationship before _this_ happened,” she made a circling gesture with her finger between the two of them. “I’m sure you remember what it was like at the beginning. I know it was tough for me, trying to hold on to some kind of ‘normal,’ something familiar only to discover the world beneath my feet had shifted so much and there was nothing I could do about it, other than to go with the flow and discover a new kind of ‘normal.’ It took me years to finally be comfortable in my own skin, some doors closed around me while others, and better, opened. I imagine it being the same for you too, so why not Nick?”

“Nick isn’t a wesen though.”

“Isn’t he? He’s a part of our world as much a Fuchsbau, or a Hexenbiest or a Bauerschwein. He just doesn’t ‘woge’ like you or me but we see the ‘real’ him in a way the humans never can. Those eyes of his make him more a part of us, than the Kehrseite.” She argued. “Nick’s world shifted the day he became a Grimm, and I have watched him learn and I’ve also seen him buckle under the weight of unmet expectations, great disappointments and colossal mistakes yet he’s still standing because like you and me, he too had to adjust to a new ‘normal.’ To be comfortable with what he was, what that meant in this world and Juliette couldn’t stand beside him, no matter how much they wanted it, tried and failed.”

“Yes, Juliette became a Hexenbiest. She left him—”

“Because she never gave him a chance, so caught up in her feelings she let a good things slip right through her fingers. Don’t repeat her mistakes.”

“She left because it would never work out between them. A Grimm with a Hexenbiest, a true joke of the century! Nick loved Juliette and it still didn’t work out, what makes you think it will, this time, knowing all that I did with my powers before?”

“It’s different now. I know it is. You are both so afraid to live your lives because of past mistakes, instead of taking a leap of faith that maybe _this_ between the two of you was always supposed to happen, Grimm and Hexenbiest be damned.

“And before you stop me once again, let me say my peace and I promise I will never bring this up ever again. You (and Kelly) came along into his life, shoring up the very pieces Juliette couldn’t, not for want of trying mind you, but simply because it wasn’t meant to be for them but perhaps, it is with you. Whatever’s gone on between you two, you’ve managed to set it aside; Nick has put it past him I know he has. Just talk to him. Give him a chance to prove it to you,” she pleaded.

“You’re both so miserable without each other when you could have it all. You walk around like two wilted flowers because you’re missing a big part of yourselves, each other. Look, for a while, Juliette was a fantastic vase of water and you’re the rich and fertile ground in which Nick’s roots get to grow deep and wide.”

Adalind turned beet red at the imagery if Nick doing deep….

“Maybe it’s something deeper, like your shared blood or something, I don’t know. I do however know that I’m not blind. There’s something ‘special’ between you two, don’t throw it away because Nick can’t find words to express himself clearly. There, I’m done! I’ll say no more on this matter.” Rosalee exhaled as if she just finished a mile sprint and took a sip of her latte.

Adalind felt tiny tendrils of hope grip her caged heart and the fear that came with it.

 _Please, don’t…_.

*/*/*


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not sure about this chapter. I hope you enjoy it better that I did writing it. 

** Chapter 5 **

****

Nick never truly understood the toll his work took on his personal life, how much it infringed upon his life until Adalind and Kelly moved out. He was a cop and it was expected of him to spend long hours away from home, doubly so now that he was also a Grimm. He did it when he was with Juliette and though she’d never complained, it had clearly affected her, explaining how things between them had imploded in so great a fashion.

He also did it with Adalind when they still shared the loft together. She too never complained but he always got the sense that she, unlike Juliette, understood that it was his duty. _Adalind always understood him in ways he didn’t expect,_ a realisation that had slowly worked its way around his heart, burrowing deep like the roots of a white oak, hundreds of years old. Now that he lived alone, it seared him being away from home as often as his job took him away because it also meant time taken away from his son.

That morning, Adalind was on her way to the loft before heading into the office. Normally she dropped Kelly off the night before so father and son could have more time together but his job got in the way.

He just stepped out of the shower when he heard the massive garage door roll shut. A peculiar feeling washed over him at the thought of the three of them together again in the home they had shared during the most adverse times of their lives. He always got pensive about their situation and no passage of time had lessened the stone of regret weighing down his heart. 

He heard the familiar ding of the elevator as he stepped out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, not exactly how he wished to greet her but then again, _nothing she hadn’t seen before._ They came face to face and for a moment both stood unable move, Nick, no doubt transfixed by her beauty.

“Hi,” he said.

“Sorry, I’m a little early; I knew you’d be up after last night….” She apologised.

Nick gave her a fleeting, blink and you’ll miss it uptick at the corner of his lips.

“Hey Buddy,” Nick turned his attention to his son, who was equally glad to see his father. “Give me one second to get dressed,” said Nick, his expression, expectantly returning to Adalind. He then turned to what used to be their bedroom and closed the massive barn doors behind him but he could still make her out through the glass windows. Adalind was still on her feet, with Kelly still attached to her hip, uncertain of what to do next. He could have stood there watching her but he realised how weird that was and carried on getting dressed, hoping she wasn’t in a rush. Perhaps they could have breakfast together, seeing how they’ve already had dinner. _It made perfect sense,_ he thought.

Once finished, Nick stepped out and saw just from her awkward posture, Adalind was already one foot out the door. Kelly sat happily on the thick carpet surrounded with his favourite toys, the two grown-ups forgotten.

“Thank you…for bringing him over.” He said.

“Don’t mention it. How’s work?” she said, making small talk, something they both sucked at but to him, she may as well spouted poetry from the way Nick looked at her. 

“Busy.” He said, hating his inability to fill the air with more than one syllable words and work was honestly the last thing he wanted to discuss.

A long awkward moment padded between them before she spoke up. “I have to go.” She said.

No. “Stay!” he exclaimed. “I mean you’re welcome to stay, for breakfast. It’s the least I can do…for dinner…the other night.” The words clumsily rolled off his tongue but before she could answer, his phone rang. He ignored it. However, she couldn’t.

“Aren’t you going to get that? It could be important.” She asked.

“They’ll call back.” The smart device just kept ringing and ringing without missing a beat.

With frustration, Nick pulled it out from his back pocket and cursed under his breath when he saw Hank’s name on the screen.

“Yeah?” he said sternly into the receiver and cursed some more after he hung up.

“Let me guess, there’s another body?” she joked and her mood dropped when she realised the accuracy of her words. “I’m sorry.”

His phone buzzed as a text came in, “I really have to go.” he was unimpressed with the turn of events.

“Go, I understand. We’ll be fine. Go be someone’s hero. I can lock up when we leave.”

Her words pained him. Nothing about their current situation felt right; as if the closer he tried to get to her, something would always push them further apart.

First, it was the return of her abilities, he wished he knew then what he knew now. For days, maybe weeks, Nick had struggled, piecing together those last moments in his waking dreams. It had taken him longer than he liked but he’d finally understood what Rosalee had been telling him all this time, what had driven her to do what she did; the fear of what he would do.

All that time together at the loft was a sort of bubble, despite still being very much a Grimm, the stuff of nightmares for all wesenkind yet Adalind had looked past it all, including his part in causing her so much pain, until that night when she woged. Now that he had her back at their loft, he wanted to tell her it didn’t mattered what she was, any more than it had mattered to her what he was, that he would never hurt her. That they could both look past each other’s nature to the people they were inside but instead, he got into his rusted metal box on his way to work, ruing yet another missed opportunity.

*/*/*

Nick entered the cordoned crime scene on SE, Milwaukie Ave. “What have we got?” He called out to Hank as he slipped on his latex gloves.

“Male, over 6ft by the looks of it.”

“Huh? Aah,” said Nick upon seeing the body for himself.

It was another decapitation, “The head and hands are also missing, like the first,” added his partner.

“Damn it! This was supposed to be my day off.” He said gruffly. 

“Dude, I had to leave this fine, fine lady’s bed for this. I mean seriously, can’t these killers consider taking the rest of eternity off so some of us can enjoy our lives.”

It was a pattern; one Nick didn’t want to see repeated. It meant they had a possible serial killer on their hands or it was a pretty close coincident.

For all the similarities, there was one difference. There wasn’t a single drop of blood anywhere, which meant they were also on the hunt for the first crime scene and the clock was ticking. 

“This is going to be a very, very long day,” Nick scowled.

*/*/*

At the precinct, Nick was neck deep in the two case files, hoping the one would shed more light on the other. He shared his theory with Hank of the first crime scene being stage like the second.

“But how would you explain the blood, the spatter? The place looked like a snuff film with the amount of blood we saw.”

“Maybe the killer wants to throw us off their scent. I can’t explain that, any more than I can the conspicuously bloodless scene at the antique shop. So I asked Forensic to have a relook at the first scene, maybe there’s something we missed.”

“Yeah, that is weird. I hate this so much right now.” Hank said, rubbing his eyes raw of sleep. “I know you missed your time with Kelly. Because this new body was similar to our first vic, this fell on our lap instead of Barker and Sinclair,” his partner commiserated with him.

They’d managed to identify the first victim as Jennifer O’Dair who’d recently moved from Boston to Portland on a job opportunity at the beginning of the year. She was a single child of an elderly couple who didn’t know she’d been missing at all until a friend filed a missing’s person report one whole week after her death.

“Let’s just get this guy before any more bodies show up.”

Nick’s cell phone started ringing.

“It’s Monroe.” He told Hank. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Hi, I was in the neighbourhood and I got the strangest call from my uncle Felix. He’s an antiquarian in Leipzig.”

“Okay….” said Nick, not sure he was supposed to care and his mind returning to the more pressing papers in front of him.”

“Look it’s better if I show you, I’m coming up.”

“You’re here?”

“…In the elevator on my way up. Adalind told Rosalee, who then told me where to find you.”

Nick heard the elevator door open and out came his friend, all jittery, like a live wire.

“Nick, Nick boy have I got some news for you. Hello Hank.” he tipped his head towards the other detective sitting across from Nick.

“Monroe.”

“Like I said, my uncle Felix called when I was attending to a new client in the Pearl District. At first, I thought someone had died but I was wrong then he says to me, ‘Your mother told me that you have a friend…that is a Grimm. That is the reason why I’m calling you.’ And I’m thinking, man my mom is a big talker—”

“And I’m imagining a point to all of this….” Nick cut in impatiently.

“Right! Onkle Felix then says to me, ‘I have something that your friend would be very interested in,’ He emailed me some photos and man you’ve got to see this.” Monroe pulled out his cell phone and held it in front of Nick.”

Nick came to attention immediately, “This looks like stuff from my books.”

“I know. It’s really amazing stuff. He said he was doing an appraisal. He’s called on a lot to appraise old books or book collections. He works for museums and collectors all over Europe, and I have to tell you, these books look really old. When it comes to the printed page before 1900, he is an aficionado supreme. In fact, most of the books and maps I have in my collection came from him. Some of these Wesen in these pages, I don’t think I've ever even heard of them.”

“Me neither,” admitted Nick. “He knew what the books were?” He handed the phone to Hank so he too could see what the content with his own eyes.

“He did. Look, he’s a smart book dealer. He knows the value of these books is obviously gonna be different for a Grimm than it’d be for someone who thinks they’re just, you know, fairy tales.”

“Did your uncle know a Grimm?”

“Not that I know of, but look, having a relationship with a Grimm is not exactly something you want to talk about in public, especially not in the old country.”

“Do you trust him?”

“You mean, do I think this stuff is real? Hell yeah, it’s real. Onkle Felix wouldn't touch a forgery.”

“Did he say how much he wants?”

“No, I think he wants to find out if you’re interested first. Look, I’m not trying to pressure you. I’m just saying this stuff looks amazing. Especially after all you lost when the trailer was burned.”

“Exactly,” interjected Hank.

“So if you're interested…” continued Monroe.

“Oh, I’m interested.”

Hank got a call from his “lady” friend, “Fellas, I hate to love and leave you but I’m out to lunch. Don’t miss me too much.” He flicked his jacket from the back of his chair and said goodbye.

They called Monroe’s uncle before it got too late in Germany. Nick felt buoyant for the first time in a long while. Getting a hold of these books would go a long way to salve the gaping wound Juliette inflicted when she burnt his Aunt Marie’s trailer, nearly destroying his entire family’s heritage. According to Monroe’s uncle, the books had belonged to a Josef Nebosja who had died six months prior, at a ripe old age of ninety-six. He lived alone for a long time, had no will or relatives. The court wanted everything of his sold as quickly as possible for taxes and they almost did until Felix Dietrich came upon the books through an associate of his.

As quickly as Nick’s spirits lifted, they plummeted to the depths below at hearing the price tag for the whole lot. As much as Nick wanted the books, he couldn’t come up with the $100,000 in as short a time as Felix insisted.

“I don’t have that kind of cash lying around. Even if I sold that vacant land up north, and dipped into my savings, I’d only come up with half of what your uncle is asking. I need more time.”

“Yeah, I’m also a little cash strapped at the moment, I couldn’t help even if I wanted to but we have to get those books Nick. What if they end up destroyed, which is what’ll happen if they fall into certain Wesen hands.”

Nick grunted with acute disappointment.

“What…what if we got Adalind to spot you the rest?”

“No,” Nick shut the idea down before it could form root.

“Why not? She’s good for it with her new-old job and just think of it as an investment to Kelly’s Grimm future. He’s going to need what’s in those books someday, I’m certain she’d be willing to help us.”

 _Monroe really had no tact sometimes,_ Nick thought and he gave his friend a look that said, “We’re not bringing her into this.”

“It was just a suggestion and I am sure she’d want to help—”

“I said no.”

“‘No’ to someone helping us out or just ‘no’ to that someone being Adalind?”

Nick twisted slightly; Monroe was much more perceptive than he looked. “Monroe, just drop it.”

“Buddy, relax, you know I’m on your side, always, no matter what you decide.”

Nick suspected they had stopped talking about the pricy Grimm books and had moved into Monroe’s new favourite topic, Nick’s love life.

This was the difference between Nick’s friends. While he couldn’t fully open up to Hank, he certainly did with Monroe but sometimes he questioned the wisdom of that stance due to his friend sometimes lacking a filter.

Monroe was a wesen, so there was a level of understanding that came with that friendship. Unsolicited, a thought crossed his mind, comparing his relationships with Juliette and Adalind to his friendship with both Hank and Monroe. It should not have surprised him, how secrecy had marred his life with Juliette and almost did his friendship in with Hank and by comparison to the openness of the latter. At the very least he could admit to himself, there was something freeing about his time with Adalind, in the same way he knew Monroe never judged him or weighed him down with his own expectations.

With those two, Nick never once felt a need to ‘hide’ who and what he was to appease them. A chilling thrill went down his spine the more he thought. Perhaps, that explained his difficulty in ‘moving on’. His friendship with Monroe was everything Nick knew he could never afford to lose despite their night and day personalities, so why then had he let things get so far out of hand with Adalind when deep inside he knew he could not be without her?

In the beginning, he would have denied it but the truth was that since the day she moved out of the loft, Nick’s eyes always sought her face whenever they were in the same room together. It was easier to believe a lie. That he was looking for the Biest within, to see if the ‘old’ Adalind had returned, but who was the old Adalind, her mother’s failed protégé? Renard’s accomplice or was she his patsy? Was she the vengeful woman or the woman who had her own dreams and for want of acceptance allowed other to use her for their gain? He’d seen her at her absolute worst but he’d also seen at her absolute best causing his body to react unexpectedly, despite his earlier concerted efforts not to. The more he looked, the more he got lost in her deep blue eyes, now more than ever.

Monroe had even cornered him one afternoon, after Adalind’s very short visit to the shop, hardly a month after their separation.

_“What is wrong with you?”_

_“Excuse me?”_

_“I mean you and Adalind. I’m not claiming to be an expert but even I can see what you simply refuse to acknowledge, with you mooning over her the way you did like a minute ago.”_

_“Pfft, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”_

_“I mean I could get into the biology side of things but I don’t want to embarrass you and bring up the lovely breakfast I made for me and my wife this morning; I just don’t get why you’re set on torturing yourself by denying the obvious. Boy likes girl, or more specifically, Grimm likes Hexenbiest and honestly, there’s no shame in that. If we can be friends, who says you can’t fall in love with a Biest? And I thought I was the stubborn one.”_

_He couldn’t deny it but it wasn’t the same as actually saying the words himself._

_Admitting to the possibility of love meant admitting to so much more than that, like the fact that every thought he had, every move he made, outside of his work, had circled round to her and it had scared the living daylights out of him. It’s as though she’d infused her essence with his. It was impossible to tell where he began and she ended, but what would be the point of bringing that up when if she no longer felt the same? Adalind seemed to go out her way to not to not want to be in the same room as him except when it concerned their son._ His friend had it all wrong. He should have stopped her from leaving him.

 _“If I were you, I’d remove whatever stick was stuck up my wahzoo and take my chance before someone else cuts in line and rides off into the sunset with the woman I love, just my 2c.” That had given Nick a start, the idea of another man by her side made his blood run ice cold and the thought of that man raising his son just about made him homicidal._ “It would never happen, I am hers and she is mine,” _he’d said to himself._

Nick was so wound up tightly he was surprised he had not yet popped a vein at the mention of her name. His life had fallen apart around him, he felt his focus at work slipping and if Hank was right, he’d lost even the control of his temper and that set him on dangerous ground. His Captain, the half Zauberbiest, Royal Prince, breathed down his neck for results but Nick suspected Sean Renard secretly took sick pleasure in Nick’s life appearing in shambles. For years, the Captain had played both sides, ingratiating himself into Nick’s life, using Adalind and then absolving himself of all the trouble he’d rained over Nick and dumping everything on Adalind’s doorstep. For years, Nick had allowed it until the scales finally fell from his eyes and he could see the Captain for what he was, a man without honour…a snake in the grass. 

“What about…?” As if he’d sensed Nick’s thoughts, Monroe tilted his head towards his Captain’s office.

“Absolutely not!” he shouted, he felt his blood begin to boil but reigned his emotions back in. “That man’s pocket is the last place I want to be in. He’s already in too deep in my business as it is.” Nick shot back stiffly. Yes, he was desperate for the books but not that desperate to get into bad with that two-faced snake, pun definitely intended.

“Sorry, bad joke,” apologised Monroe. “I have to go; I’m meeting my mom for our annual scheduled lunch. Nick, I’ll talk to my uncle again and see if I can’t get him to lower the amount, at the very least, to hold off selling the books to anyone else until we can come up with something.” He said and he got up from his chair.

“I’ll appreciate it,” said Nick.

Then something on Nick’s desk made Monroe stop in his tracks, “Hey, someone killed Sweet Robin?” Monroe picked up one of the crime photos for closer inspection.

“…Sweet who?”

“Robin Jaeger, everyone who’s everyone knows Sweet Robin.”

“Not this guy, I don’t.”

“Yeah, sorry. Sometimes I forget you’re not wesen, specifically Blutbad. I recognised the tattoo, or at least what’s left of it.”

While Nick could only make out what looked like a tail of an animal of some kind he couldn’t make neither heads nor tails of the triangular blob in its centre.

“It’s the big bad wolf circling little red riding hood, that’s her hood, you can’t tell because it’s black, like the Forest, as he liked to brag to anyone who would listen.” Monroe had said.

“So why do you call him sweet Robin?”

“Because he has—had a sweet tooth for…you know…”

Nick knew.

“Why am I only finding out about this guy now, if he’s what you say he is? How many people has he…you know…?”

“Oh, that’s because Robin was smart, at least that’s what he liked to tell himself, he never shat where he slept. It was his motto. He rarely hunted in Portland, and more so when you came along. He liked crossing the border north. He said those woods were the best for finding ‘game.’ As to how many he’s…you know, I can’t say other that it was a lot, according to some people in the know.”

“I am going to need all of their names and addresses. Did he have any enemies?”

“Boy did he ever, the list is as long as the telephone book. I mean, you’ve seen the size of him right? There aren’t a lot of people I look up to at full height and he’s one of them. Sweet Robin always talked a big game and actually had the stones to back it up, pissing people wherever he went and not just picking on Kehrseite alone. Torture was his favourite past time, if he caught you looking at him funny. I’m not surprised someone finally dished up a little payback.”

“Great!” Nick said unenthusiastically. “I thought that maybe this was related to another one of my cases but it’s possible it’s completely unrelated.”

“How so?”

Nick pointed out the differences between the two cases, “It’s possible his killer wanted to exact revenge, torture him until he died. It’s would explain why all the blood was drained from the body, the complete opposite of the first victim. It’s possible the second killer mimicked the first in cutting off Jaeger’s head and hands; for one thing, it wasn’t done as cleanly as the first. Whoever killed Jaeger wanted to inflict as much pain as possible before his end. His death was likely slow, excruciatingly so. Ms O’Dair couldn’t have suffered much at all with how swiftly the blow came.” He assumed but without her severed head to confirm his theory, he couldn’t be 100% certain.

Monroe left soon after, unable to put off spending time with his mother any longer, leaving Nick to mull over both cases. He was looking at two possible killers or a serial killer and he didn’t like either one of those option one bit. Instead of having lunch, he followed the lead and headed out to question potential witness, someone who could fill in the blanks leading up to Sweet Robin’s untimely demise. Nick figured the sooner he collected more evidence, the sooner he’d go home, mistakenly assuming Adalind waited for him at their loft. It dawned on him a second later that they wouldn’t be there, waiting for him as before.

He was despondent until something inside him shifted. He’d woke up that morning thinking the handful of books to survive Juliette’s raging inferno was all he had left of his heritage but fate had intervened and suddenly there was hope. He’d faced the probability of his case going cold and fast had it not been for Monroe’s timely visit. Nick wasn’t a believer in anything outside of what he could do with his own strength but even he couldn’t deny that things had turned a corner where his books and his case were concerned so why could the same not apply to whatever existed between him and Adalind? Perhaps he was the one that had it all wrong, that fate wasn’t keeping them apart, only his stubbornness and wounded pride.

His Grimm had not stifled her burgeoning feelings for him and it was clear that her Hexenbiest hadn’t prevented him falling for the petite but enticing blond. With clarity he hadn’t had in what seemed like an eternity, Nick came to a decision to assume back control of his life. He knew exactly what he wanted, to get his family back and was determined to get it.

*/*/*


	6. Chapter 6

She’d only met Willard Rautbort a handful of times the first time she worked at Berman, Rautbort, and Associates. The man was a hermit, according to office whispers. Thus, being called into a last minute meeting with the most reclusive of her bosses and one of the company’s big clients couldn’t be taken lightly. Adalind left Kelly in the company of the only person she could afford to trust in that forsaken place, Rocky, the mail carrier. She’d known Rocky since before but it was also because of the fact that she always got her mail not tempered, detecting no magic around it that went a long way towards getting into Adalind’s graces. It helped that Kelly’s face always brightened up whenever Rocky stuck his head around her door. The two had become fast friends in the months back.

Adalind had panicked as she stood outside Rautbort’s office on the dot for her meeting and heard two male voices already at the brass tacks of things. She cursed under her breath before rapping her knuckles gently against the obscured glass door.

“Adalind, come on in,” she heard from inside. “Please take a seat.”

“You do see the importance of acquiring such an important artefact?”

“Absolutely, it’s not the sort of thing you want to let slip through your fingers. I only wish we had more time.”

“My sources tell me time is quickly running out. Several buyers have already lined up but the gentleman has refused to even entertain my offer to double the asking price which is where you come in.” The gentleman gave a quick glance at Adalind before returning his laser-like focus on the elderly man behind the massive mahogany Kittinger Partners desk, a glaring contrast to the rest of the contemporary-modern office setting. “I understand you specialise in these sort of transaction, Ms…?”

“Schade.”

“Aah…” was all the man said as if he knew something that Adalind did not. It made her uneasy suddenly.

“Mr Conrad Bonaparte is a long standing client of this firm and has shown a particular interest in a sort of heirloom from the old country and seeing as you are the only Hexenbiest in our employ, a great opportunity has presented itself,” said Rautbort with little emotion.

Adalind could feel the proverbial noose tightening a little more round her neck.

“There are quicker and more blunt ways to deal with this issue but using a little finesse is much more preferable considering all the players at the table.”

Reading between the lines, Adalind began to object without refusing outright what was clearly an order. “I am a lawyer, I’m certain there’s something I can dig up to ensure the favour swings considerably your way.”

“Perhaps you misunderstood. I am aware of your abilities, some of which I do not possess.” He woged, much to Adalind’s horror but she swallowed her terror before it showed on her face. This was a test and Adalind realised failing was the difference between death and something worse.

“I uh…persuasion isn’t exactly part of my skillset.”

“Isn’t seduction a form of persuasion, you certainly know how to seduce don’t you?” Bonaparte added.

 _Eww. Why did people automatically assume just because she could do something that she enjoyed those particular aspects of her abilities?_ She thought of Viktor, what he’d asked her to do during a very desperate time in her life. No matter what she thought of that time, she could never take back the unexpected gift she received. She learnt a very hard lesson back then and had sworn to never put herself at the mercy of another powerful man but now sitting in Rautbort’s office, it appeared that old habits did in fact die hard.

“Adalind, I’m not asking you to climb Mt Everest. You’ve done this before,” her boss cut in.

 _Yeah, a whole lifetime ago and she wasn’t that person anymore._ She helplessly thought of how to tell her boss and his full Zauberbiest friend that without cutting her life very short, prematurely. Kelly was still too young to lose a mother, she thought, teetering very close to a full-blown panic.

“Alright, what do you need me to do?” she exhaled slowly, desperately attempting to school her features before exceptionally observant eyes.

“There’s an antiquarian in Germany who has in his possession a very important book, part of a collection but I don’t care about that.”

“You want this book.”

“Yes.”

“You say you’ve offered him double…for the whole collection?”

“No, just the one book. He’s obstinate you see, insisting on selling everything. It belonged to a nonagenarian who left no heirs.”

“You mentioned something about this artefact…book being an heirloom but its previous owner left no living relatives?”

“Do not concern yourself about the details,”

“No, it’s alright that she knows. This book is _the_ Book of Grimm.”

She nearly blanched remembering and then remembered her present company. 

“I’ve heard of those, I even came across one a few years ago, a journal of sorts, documenting all the different wesen Grimms have encountered over the years,” she said calculatingly. She figured the more she seemed unassuming and forthcoming, the better. She didn’t think this Zauberbiest took kindly to being deceived. 

“Not this particular book, I have it on good authority it’s a genealogy book, a family tree from the seven knights down to a new born babe from only a few months ago, that’s how meticulous and accurate it is. I need you to work your magic.” Bonaparte pointed a long, scrawny finger in her direction. “Get me that book before this imbecile old man sells it to his nephew’s friend, your very own local Grimm.”

Adalind visibly gulped.

“Aah, we’ve had some dealings with that particular Grimm a few years ago, though we were not aware of it at the time, a Detective Bernard…Burk –something or whatever his name is. It was an unfortunate thing; we lost a handful of Hexenbiests at the hands of a queen Mellifer and her killer bees, all except for Ms Schade here.”

“Yes, yes I remember that. She nearly killed me.”

“…Had the Grimm not stepped in….” Bonaparte looked her way as he spoke.

Adalind couldn’t tell whether he insinuated something, if anything at all. The ground beneath was shifting fast and _if she were not careful, she could easily fall through the cracks set up by Mr Bonaparte. Did he know more than what he let on? She hoped not, or else she’d be dead…likely._

“I cannot stress the importance of getting hold of that book,” he said.

She understood, all too well. _Nick was certainly in that book and perhaps Kelly as well._ Her blood instantly ran cold like water trapped in a stone when the full weight of that book in Bonaparte’s hands hit her.

“From what I understand, this Grimm is a dog with no bite but I do not want to test that theory just yet. It’s the only reason that old man is still alive and we’re having this conversation right now, his connection to the Detective.”

Adalind could have laughed at the irony of that statement.

“Your flight leaves tomorrow morning. Get this done and who knows, you might make partner before the year is out.” Rautbort said, as if he were dangling a carrot in front of Adalind when it reality it was a big heavy stick. “Clara will forward you your itinerary.” With those words, he dismissed her from his office.

Adalind quickly made a beeline towards the safety of her office and to her son. Now more than ever she wanted to hold him in his arms, never did she imagine returning to work would be equivalent to walking into the lion’s den. She needed to get him as far away from that place, away from Bonaparte or anyone one posing a threat to him as humanly possible. She needed to quit, walk out the door and never look back but not before she took care of this new problem fatefully dropped into her lap.

Adalind found her office vacant, Rocky and Kelly, nowhere in sight. She quickly stemmed down her panic as they entered her office directly after her. Rocky handed Kelly over to his mother and she thanked the old man, a Mauzhertz, for watching over him during his run. Years ago, it wasn’t not long after Adalind began working for the firm, she had helped him against his landlord, who had tried to illegally evict him and his rather big family and Rocky had sworn to pay Adalind back somehow but she hadn’t even thought about money at the time. She had felt that she was helping someone who needed it at the time.

She was still an idealist at the time, before her life grew extremely tumultuous due to a demanding mother, her associations with some dubious clients and problematic Royals. After all these years, Rocky still reminded her of the “kindness” she’d shown him, as he liked to tell her. She thanked him and dismissed him, not wanting to go through another rendition of how appreciative he was of her return to B.R.&A. shutting the door behind her.

On her desk, she found a conspicuous folder with the name Leipzig, Germany scrawled on the side. Tentatively, she opened it as if she was afraid of something jumping straight out of the pages, yet still hoping she was over reacting. There were two names, Josef Nebosja, the dead Grimm and Felix Dietrich, the Blutbad antique book appraiser, from the sound of things, Monroe’s uncle. She went through the folder not once but three times absorbing as much information as she could. There were photos of what looked like twenty Grimm journals, some contents included, all except from one book, the Book of Grimm. Adalind suspected that particular book had its content specially sealed shut for a reason, against people like Bonaparte who were desperate to get their hands on it.

She made a few calls, wanting to confirm what lay in the file. Not like what she heard, she pulled out one of her cell phones, not the “office” one but her personal phone, untraceable, and searched for a specific number. Adalind stepped out into the balcony of her office for more “privacy” and searched through her phone for names, her call log of people she trusted with her life and all she came up with was Nick, Rosalee, Monroe, Bud and more of Nick and she couldn’t go to them with this, at least not yet. Nick had a certain way of dealing with a problem; and not to quote Bonaparte but she needed to act swiftly and secretly. She needed lots of cash and fast.

She came across Renard’s name and quickly scrolled past it. He was a friend to no one, not even an ally she could trust after everything they had been through in the past. That man never scratched anyone’s back without getting something more out in return and Adalind was as adamant to ensure he got little to no wind of Grimm book existing after years of him manipulating Nick to try to control him over to his side, _as he did with her,_ to get in with the Royal side of his family.

Adalind made a call to her banker. It was a long shot. Could she get the money before meeting with Mr Dietrich, the reluctant seller? It was clear to her he held out as long as he did because of Monroe and by extension, Nick and the only reason he still had the books in his possession was probably due to Nick having difficulty coming up with the money in such a short time. _What made her think she’d be more successful, where he failed?_ She wondered to her herself. _And what if her boss got wind of this plan, what if Bonaparte discovered her treachery? No matter, she’d cross that bridge if and when she got to it._ For Kelly, she would do anything to keep him safe. She’d risk everything for him, including her life.

“I know it’s short notice but it’s vital I have that money before the day’s end.” She said to the man on the other end of the line.

“I understand. I’m not guaranteeing anything at this stage but I’ll see what I can do for you,” said the banker, a nice enough man, apart from the flirtatious way he sometimes conducted himself whenever they were face to face. Years ago, she would have taken advantage of the Kerhseite’s naiveté but she found the whole spectacle tiring these days. It was impossible to flirt with or even enjoy a man’s attention when she craved just one specific man’s attention and he hardly paid her the sort of attention she longed for.

After the call, she returned to her desk, the picture of serenity but Adalind’s heart thrashed wildly against her chest. She’d done all that she could for her little bundle of joy, happily chewing one of his toys in his cot. However, it gnawed at her to leave the rest to an accountant in a downtown bank. The fact that Bonaparte was willing to play nice with Monroe’s uncle for a bit longer was a boon neither she nor Nick could have expected or hoped for, so she intended to make the best of it. It wasn’t lost on Adalind what would happen should Bonaparte run out of patience. She shuddered at the thought.

After a hapless hour of trying to work and go about life as normal, Adalind gave up and let Kelly entertain her for a bit as she waited for a call from the bank with news of her loan. “It’s all for you Kel, and for Dada and Trubel too, _wherever she was._ Your grandmother would flay me alive if she ever heard me speaking like this right now but then again, she’s gone and I can make my own decisions.”

A loud shrill of her desk phone startled her from her loud thoughts; she picked up the receiver after another ring or two after settling her racing heart. _Perhaps it was Mr Charleston from the bank._ It was her P.A. Sandy Grootbaum, “I’m sorry to bother you Ms Schade, there’s a Mr Kessler waiting on the line for you. He doesn’t have an appointment but says it’s urgent.”

Kessler? She only knew two people by that name, and they were both dead and then it clicked…. “Patch him through,” said Adalind.

“Adalind Schade speaking, what can I do for you?”

“Adalind—Ms Schade, I apologise for imposing on your time—”

Relief swept over Adalind as she recognised the man’s voice immediately, as if he somehow knew she needed to hear his voice to calm the storm quickly brewing inside her.

“Mr Kessler, I apologise. The error is mine, I meant to pencil you for an appointment, but it had slipped my mind, how about we meet for an early lunch, today, if you will?”

That caught Nick by surprise. She heard something catch in his throat before he replied without breaking a beat, “I would appreciate that.”

“Let me sort out some things on my end and I will text you the location, I still have you number. However, there’s one little matter I hope it won’t be a problem. I have very young son with me, he’ll be joining us today. I know it’s unorthodox….”

“Ms Schade, it will be no problem at all, I have a way with children. I would never ask you to leave him behind.” Nick said.

“That’s perfect. See you in thirty.”

*/*/*

Adalind parked on the side kerb across from the restaurant she’d texted to Nick. She could see him sitting by the window inside, waiting for them. She tried to temper down her emotions, the last thing she wanted was to escalate a situation that was still within her control.

She entered the restaurant and instead of heading to Nick’s table where he’d stood on his feet to greet her but instead, Adalind tipped down her head and walked passed him to one furthest from the window and public view. The paranoia was irrational but after the morning she had, she needed to exercise more caution. Nick joined her a moment later, surprise, written on his face. He quickly pulled a chair for her to sit before taking a seat across from her. He lifted Kelly from his stroller and placed him across his lap.

“Well, this isn’t exactly how I thought this would go when I called your office.”

She was grateful he did, though it was on the tip of her tongue to ask him why he did call.

They’d long agreed to keep Nick Burkhardt, the Grimm away from the place she worked. No one could know their connection to one another, no matter what. While all of B.R.&A. knew about Kelly, his paternity was a well-guarded secret and they had both sworn to keep it that way. To most of Portland, Nick and Adalind had very little dealings together and maintaining that ruse was paramount for Kelly’s safety. As Grimm and Hexenbiest, they’d racked up enough enemies to make their son an easy target and to have the secrecy of his paternity exposed was to put a target on his back. Today of all days proved that decision prudent.

“I’m glad you did, you gave me a good reason to get out of the office. I needed that.”

“Something’s wrong. What happened?” His concern was palpable; she could tell by the way he held his son a little tighter against his chest.

“Nothing…but I think it’s time I stopped bringing Kelly with me to work.” She interrupted his speech.

He said nothing but his countenance had grown a shade darker.

Adalind calculated the risk of telling Nick about Bonaparte. In truth, she was dying to tell him. While at the loft, he’d always made her feel safe, safer than at any other time in her life and now more than ever, she wanted to feel that way again but times had changed. Their time at the loft was over but one thing remained, their love for Kelly. She remembered when she came to him at the Precinct with news of her pregnancy, seeking his protection and Juliette; freshly minted Hexenbiest intercepted them before they could leave.

Adalind remembered how Nick solidly stood between her and his homicidal girlfriend, she desperately needed that Nick again, but now something new, unfamiliar and even more intense had rapidly risen within her. As he sat there stoically holding their son, a strange fire burned right through her. Adalind felt a sudden but strong and primal sense to protect Nick from harm, from the Zauberbiest that had deadly intentions against his kind despite the fact that Nick, as a Grimm was more than capable of taking care of himself. Suddenly, Adalind wanted to be the one to stand between him and those who wanted to kill him.

A calmness swept over her, a contrast to the storm brewing behind those grey stormy orbs looking down at her.

“This is unexpected.” What he really meant was, _“What the heck happened at that office to make you want Kelly away from you for longer than a second?_ ” His voice was calm but it belied the truth staring her in the face. Adalind saw a vein pulsating erratically at his temple, Nick, clearly reigning in his better nature.

“I think it’s time. I mean look at him, more and more he’s beginning to look like you every day and I’d rather he be far away from that place before someone puts two and two together.” She answered but it wasn’t enough to mollify him.

“Something _did_ happen.” He said intensely, taking her tiny hand in his. It was so big, calloused from the hard life he lived but it was also so soft to the touch, gently caressing, something she didn’t expect but greatly welcomed. His whole body had grown taut, like a beast waiting to strike at the first threat around him, a glaring contrast that had surprisingly made Adalind weak at the knees in the months they had spent together. Never did Adalind think a Grimm, of all beings, was capable of as much tenderness and strength as Nick had shown her in months past. It was so easy for her to want to fall again back into his arms; instead, Adalind steeled herself for what followed.

“Nick, I’m going out of town for a few days. I fly out tomorrow morning.” She began. The surprise on his face was expected so she pushed on. “I’m hoping it will be a short trip, regardless, it had me thinking about our custody arrangement…it’s time I revisit that as well, to make it joint.” The words rolled off her tongue on their own, to her own surprise. She never considered this move until that moment and it felt right.

“What…Adalind?” he said her name in a way that made her insides flutter with butterflies and almost had her lose her nerve. “What the heck is going on?”

“My work load is piling, I can no longer keep up. If he won’t be with me all day, we both can have equal time with him. It makes perfect sense.”

“Sense? _You’re_ not making any sense. You Adalind Schade, are giving up Kelly?”

“No-I’m not giving him up, I’m just being practical. This trip, even though Rautbort sprung it on me only this morning, it’s for one of our big clients. It’s given me time to pause and think of what’s best for Kelly.

He wasn’t fooled. Nick had a talent of smelling “bs” a mile away, not even Adalind could finagle her way out of telling him the whole truth _, but at least she could delay it…._

“This client of yours, had you worked with him before today?”

“No.”

“So he is the reason you don’t want Kelly at the office and this whole shared custody twist, not that I’m not appreciative but something else is going here.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. Nick, Kelly’s growing up so fast and he’s going to need someone to give him undivided attention. I can’t do that over a stack of legal documents and meetings all day, no matter how much I want to. He…he needs this and it was never fair of me to take him away from you in the first place.”

“Who is he? What is he?” His voice was low, but she heard his control slipping.

“Nothing…nothing I cannot handle.” She said but it only reinforced the dread building inside of Nick. He gave her a grim look, needling out a little more from her. She sighed. “He’s someone I cannot afford to make a mistake around.”

“So why won’t you tell me who-what he is?”

“…Because nothing’s happened and nothing is going to happen. I’m going to make sure of it.”

“But you are worried, which makes me worried. I know you hate waring in that place, and now this client…”

“I’m probably just overacting. I have a knack for doing that.” She gave him a weak smile.

“I know that things have been weird between us but you know you can tell me, whatever it is. You can trust me…I can help you.”

“I know you can, that is what I love about you, but this is something I need to deal with myself and my way, at least for now.”

Something incandescent flickered behind his eyes at her words.

“What, what is it?” she asked him self-consciously, confused by the change in his bearing and only then did she realise what she’d said aloud. “I’ll be gone for a few days, then we’ll talk.” She continued as normal.

“Adalind…whatever it is, you aren’t alone in this. I want to be there…for _you_.” He said, the last word stressed for emphasis. “I know it’s not my place, and maybe it never was with how things played out between us but oh how I wished it were my place, not to tell you what to do and make you do anything but to be there for you…to _be_ with you and not because of Kelly either.”

“What are you saying?” Her heart began to race listening to his words.

“Damn it. I was hoping to do this under better circumstances; to say what I have needed to say since that day.”

Somehow, she knew which day he meant.

“Maybe I am too late but I wish I could go back to that day and do things differently, to tell you that you had nothing to be afraid of with me because I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone else hurt you, not again. I know that this is not the time but I should have stopped you from leaving. I should have fought harder for what we had…almost had.”

She actually couldn’t believe her ears. For so long she was afraid to hope for more because why would she after she’d hurt him so much in the past? She had no right to expect anything from him. In that restaurant, his words unfurled something deep, a fresh reservoir of feeling as they tumbled to the surface with each deep syllable. She was a Hexenbiest, yet Nick Burkhardt worked something heady in her heart, stronger than any potions she’d ever cooked up in her life, impossible to contain.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Tell me you will have me because I cannot live another day without you, not one more second. I tried and it gets harder and harder with each passing day. I miss you.” His eyes glazed with unshed tears, which he quickly brushed off. “I don’t know, maybe I am going crazy, slowly losing my mind. I’m drowning myself in work, which is chaotic enough as it looking for ghosts where there aren’t any and maybe I am projecting some of my issues on to you with your work because I know I messed up, big time and I want to be the man you…I’m sorry. I’m sorry, forget I said anything.” He said clearing his throat and pulled away from her, as if he just realised he’d said too much. 

“Did you mean it?”

“Which part?”

“…Any of it…all of it…”

“I did but I understand if it’s too late…to give me a chance. It’s the reason I called you at the office today. I wanted us to talk, to really talk….”

It was at that moment the waitress returned to their table with their meals. Neither of them spoke the entire time unto the tall brunette left their table once more.

“I miss you too.” She said, breaking the silence that had suddenly fallen between them.

For several minutes, they ate in companionable silence, each digesting all that was spoken.

“So what happened at work?” She questioned him, when the silence…the ‘looks’ between them got to be too much for her. She needed a distraction before she jumped over the table and planted a long one on his firm lips.

“Hmmm?”

You said something about work being chaotic, what happened?” she asked.

“Oh, that…it’s nothing. Let’s just the Grimm in me was on duty that day and not the cop. Renard suspended me for a few days, without pay. He had to ‘make an example,’ he said, or else it would have escalated to his higher ups.”

“Ooh, I’m sure he loved that. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Now I get to spend some quality time with my boy right here, while you are away.” he gently patted Kelly’s fading golden crown. “You’re sure-sure, this problem at your office…I can’t be of any help?”

“Nick, when I need a Grimm knight in bright shining armour, you will be the first call I make.”

“You said ‘when’ and not ‘if,’ so you are expecting trouble.”

“I walked straight into that didn’t I? Rookie mistake.” She said; a lame attempt at a joke. He didn’t bite.

Her cell phone pinged. It was a text notification.

Adalind held her breath as she flipped her phone and gazed down at the screen. Immediately, a warmth radiated from within her as she smiled braodly, “It’s already done.” She said.

“What did you do?” He asked. He wasn’t accusing.

“I did what was necessary,” she said, now grinning from ear to ear. She slid her phone across the table.

“What is this?” He picked up on her phone and looked at the screen confused. “I don’t understand.”

“This is my way of dealing not just with my problem, but out problem,” she beamed, harkening back to earlier in their conversation. 

Adalind’s bank account was now a $100,000 and some richer. The bank had approved her loan and that meant Nick could finally get the Grimm books and Bonaparte couldn’t be an issue anymore.

“Care to explain,” said Nick.

“It’s a bit of a long, convoluted tale about the sale of over a dozen Grimm Books or so. I know you didn’t have the money, or at the very least couldn’t come up with it fast enough but I couldn’t wait.”

“How in the world did you know about the books? Did Monroe come to you? I told—”

“Monroe? No. My trip tomorrow, it is to Leipzig, Germany. My new client, he wants me to go and get him the books using my charms, if you know what I mean.” A chill went down her spine just thinking about Bonaparte, a hair’s breadth from her face earlier that day.

“You didn’t have to do this. I mean I was going to get those books.”

“Not fast enough, what else do you know about Nebosja?”

“Other than he was a Grimm and died of natural causes at a very old age?”

“Well he was a historian, or whatever passes off as such for Grimms. I don’t know how he did it, but apparently, he kept a very detailed journal of every Grimm going back to the very first Seven.”

“And that’s why you…”

“I got the money so you can buy the books, since this Felix Dietrich, the man I’m supposed to meet in Germany won’t sell to anyone but you. I couldn’t wait. My client won’t wait any longer. He doesn’t care about all the other books, only one that has your name, date of birth and I’m fairly sure it has the loft’s address written it or else what’s the point of buying a book with names but no way of tracking those name. Moreover, if you’re in it, Kelly could be too.” She said, and let it sink in.

“You may have gotten your abilities only a few years back but if I’m right, Nebosja somehow had the knowledge of who in your bloodline carried the sight and he recorded it, down to the last child born before he died. If you buy the books, that Zauberbiest will never know about Kelly, and he certainly won’t come busting through your door and catch you unaware.”

“You mean half-Zauberbiest.”

Adalind shook her head, “Full…the real deal. Take the money Nick and protect our son because tomorrow, I go to Germany to do my job.”

*/*/*


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of what I have written in this chapter regarding wesen physiology is my own understanding of this verse, it’s not strictly canon, the show ended so long ago, and I don’t remember if it was ever fleshed out. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy.

Nick felt sick to his stomach listening to Adalind’s wild plan. He was livid. How could she remain so calm with the nightmare that was her law firm? The fact that she wanted to dive head first into the unknown with a Zauberbiest possibly breathing down her neck, made Nick want to shake some sense back into her. She’d rendered him useless, a position so foreign to him it left a bitter metallic taste in his mouth.

He detested that office and everything it stood for so much, he wanted to punch a Dickfellig or something equally hard like a brick wall until his skin broke and blood flowed. Maybe then, the physical pain would numb whatever alien rage coursed in his veins. _What was he going to do, march into B.R. &A. and do what exactly, demand she pack her things and leave, ask them to stop putting her in dangerous situations with dangerous criminals, or worse, wesen more powerful than the Hexenbiest?_

He cursed the situation in which they both found themselves. He knew Adalind wasn’t a helpless waif, waiting for him to ride in and save the day and Nick wasn’t a Neanderthal, wanting the woman he loved barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, but it didn’t mean he was okay with any of it. She’d tied his hand firmly behind his back, essentially claiming a Grimm couldn’t save the day when it was all he knew to do.

When she first told him that she’d wanted to return to work, so she could lighten his burden taking care of both her and Kelly, he’d wanted to protest, but Nick bit his tongue, it wasn’t his place to voice his concerns. With everything still unresolved between them, it wasn’t his place even there in that restaurant.

With her mind resolved, Adalind gave him the money to purchase the books while she’d be _en route_ to Germany. She intended to put on her “best performance of her life” with Monroe’s uncle for her firm’s benefit, giving weight to her subterfuge. To say he wasn’t happy with her scheme was an understatement of the century. “If we don’t do this, we walk straight into Conrad Bonaparte’s hands, and I’d die a million deaths before I let him get his hands on Kelly,” she professed emphatically.

“Okay, no more talks of you dying from this point forward.” He told her uncomfortably, feeling a sharp pain in his chest at the candid way she spoke. Nick wasn’t ready for that to happen, not by a long while, several decades at the least but he didn’t share that particular thought with her.

“I know it’s hard for you to imagine but it’s going to work, Nick. I’m sure of it.” She tried to reassure him. “Bonaparte already knows you, the Portland Grimm but apparently nothing else more than that and so we have to use that to our advantage. Nobody other than our friends and Renard knows about us and Kelly. B.R.&A. didn’t know of our connection or else they wouldn’t have hired me back as quickly as they did. No wesen wants it known to the whole community they liaise with a known Grimm, no matter how forward thinking and a breaker of tradition that Grimm appears, it’s bad for business.”

“So I am bad for you?” He said, interrupting her speech, which she no doubt prepared in order to sway him to her way of thinking.

“What-no, no, that’s not what I meant. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” she quickly corrected herself, “…To me.” she added, a little shyly as she lowered her gaze from his eyes to the table content.

If easing his mind was her intention, she failed miserably, “I know what it is you’re trying to do.”

“Is it working?” she asked pointedly.

“Did it work when I went to Germany with Monroe?”

“Nope, but I let you go anyway because I knew you had to do it.”

He didn’t see that coming, his past actions used against him so proficiently.

Nick remembered their one and only night together. Adalind had confessed her love to him and they’d made love nearly all night long, they couldn’t get enough of the other. She’d been convinced he’d run afoul of dark forces bent on his destruction on his quest to the Black Forest and had wanted him to know the depth of her feelings for him, should she never see him again. He’d tried to dismiss her feelings regarding his mission. She was right to worry back then but he couldn’t think like that now knowing the shoe was now on the other foot.

Nick wished they were in a more private setting, away from prying eyes, where he could wrap her tightly in his arms, but sitting there in Giorgio’s in broad daylight, he knew he couldn’t. He had to content with a discreet handhold and hope his voice conveyed much of what he couldn’t say, at least not yet. Now, more than ever, they needed to keep a physical distance whenever they were out in public. It was already too much of a risk to have met at the restaurant as they did, now that he knew her true situation at work. Though she wore her mask well, he knew working with Bonaparte unsettled her. She’d never admit to being afraid and still she wanted to be the one to protect him against the powerful Zauberbiest.

It was rather ironic of the two of them to find themselves in a repeat of history but with their roles reversed. An image of Adalind lying in a pool of blood flashed for a split of a second across his mind and Nick brushed it away with the blinking of an eye but he couldn’t erase it completely from his consciousness. It actually caused him a physical, stabbing pain in his chest.

“Don’t worry so much, I’ll be back before you know it. We…can talk then…about…us….” She said, her voice too low, as though she insinuated much more than just ‘talking’ taking place between them upon her return, it set a blazing flame to his bones instantly. He couldn’t miss the twinkle in her eye as she watched him behind her long lashes, eliciting thoughts too provocative for their public setting. He wanted her way too much for his own good. He knew it and for the first time, embraced it wholeheartedly. Never in his wildest imagination did he think Adalind Schade would have such an effect on his mind, body and heart…his whole and entire being.

Nick forced his thoughts to safer terrain as he watched her silently, memorising the way her skin radiated despite the low, artificial light above their table…too beautiful, the contour of her smile warmer than the sun; she had him under her spell, and the thought bothered him none at all. Gone was the Nick who couldn’t admit to himself his weakness for the petite blonde Biest. Nick wasn’t even embarrassed any more by how much he really wanted to get lost in those pretty blue eyes for all of eternity but _first, she needed to come back to him before forever could begin._

Adalind looked down at her wristwatch. She winced and he grimaced, their short respite in the midst of ensuing chaos was over.

“I have to go, before they start to wonder where I’ve disappeared to,” she said much to his disappointment.

“And…I have to at least return with Kelly…to keep up appearances and maybe after today, he’ll never have to set foot or stroller in that place ever again.”

“I know…I’d rather neither of you set foot in that place ever again.” He said with resignation. He called for their bill, which he paid in cash, _it was best not to leave a money trail if they could help it._ Adalind then bundled Kelly back into his stroller and pause before Nick, “See you later. Say goodbye to Dada, Kel.”

“Goodbye Champ, watch over your mom for me. I’ll see you tonight. As for you,” he said, taking her hand in his, “Please be careful,” he added fervently which made her blush profusely under his gaze.

“I…I will. I will see you later, at the loft to drop him off. Don’t come by the house.” She said and left him standing in the middle of the restaurant. He sunk back into his chair, realising that not only could he not walk her back to her car, he needed to wait a little longer, he didn’t know which ghosts…or was it monsters that lurked behind every corner wherever she and his son went. Nick felt the weight of powerlessness drag him down with the ticking of the clock at the far distance wall.

No, he decided.

As he sat there, he realised he couldn’t simply do nothing. He could and would protect her somehow. It might not be typical to his way of doing things, but the more he thought about this craziness with the Grimm books, the more he realised she’d given him an opening. She would not leave Portland with nothing but her wits and courage for strength. The plan took root in his mind and Nick hoped his actions this side of the Atlantic Ocean would still render her safe from every potential threat she faced. Nick couldn’t confront those threats physically but he would make sure Bonaparte never gets to looks twice at her again after today.

*/*/*

“She actually gave you the money, all of it?” Monroe asked incredulously with a dash of _“I told you so,”_ for good measure.

“Yes, but don’t gloat just yet.”

“What are you talking about, we should be celebrating,” said the Blutbad, unable to contain his glee.

“…Celebrating? What are we celebrating? Hi Honey. Hi Nick.” Rosalee said as she entered the siting room.

“We are not celebrating anything,” countered Nick in a huff.

“Nick is being a sour puss, Adalind gave him the money we needed to buy the books from Onkel Felix and he’s acting like someone took the jam out of his doughnut.”

“We got the money? That’s definitely something to celebrate.” Rosalee chimed in, much to Nick’s chagrin.

“There’d be nothing to celebrate if I use this money and buy every single one of those books.” He interjected soberly.

Monroe and Rosalee looked confused. “I don’t understand,” said his friend.

“It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you but you’re not listening to me. I didn’t ask Adalind for the money. I didn’t even know she knew I needed it. She surprised me.”

“If you didn’t tell her about the books, then who did?”

“Her new client, though he’s not new to the firm. His name is Conrad Bonaparte, a full Zauberbiest and apparently, he’s been on our trail since Felix came into possession of the books and connected me to you and now Adalind and my son could potentially be in his crosshairs. They definitely will be if I buy all of those books.”

“A Zauberbiest…oh, those are rare, and very dangerous. That’s not good Nick, said Rosalee.

“I know.”

“No you really don’t. According to Adalind, Hexenbiests are emotional beings, the deeper they feel, the more power they wield but there’s a weakness built in, their dependence on those with power, like Royals for instance. Zaubers are the opposite; their power is at its zenith when their emotions are shut off, making them subject to no one but themselves and their insatiable quest for true power, control; the longer they live, the stronger they become, much like any wesen for that matter but that’s not really the whole picture.

“I’m sure you would have noticed over the years, there’s a sort of hierarchy in the wesen world, typical animalistic traits, like with your lions versus antelopes etc.; standard raw power stuff. The Wesen Council strictly monitors the happening of regular wesen activities but due to how rare full Zauberbiests are…I mean you could go centuries without ever hearing or seeing one.”

“I thought that’s what wesen said about Grimm,” said Nick.

“That’s hyperbolic, something we grow up wanting to believe because who wants to come face to face with the _Decapitare_? Anyway, outside of that hierarchy I mentioned, there’s technically a second, governed not by who gets to eat who, but rather who gets to sit the throne of power over the rest.”

“You make it sound like it’s some kind of Game of Thrones.”

“Maybe it is. All I know is, Biests, Royals and Grimm among others, some stuff is probably more legend than fact sit at the very top tier of the hierarchy fighting for power and control from one age to the next. Have you ever heard of Zerstörer?”

“No, what id he?” he asked but wasn’t so eager for a history lesson when he had pressing matters.

“Maybe he’s an ancient Zauberbiest, or maybe the first Grimm or both, legend doesn’t say. The only documented stuff about him is from a children’s nursery rhyme in one of these old books I got from Onkel Felix.”

“The point is none of the above have animalistic features like the rest of us wesen. You occupy both worlds but while the first is fixed and natural, the chain never gets broken, the latter is more fluid, depending on which history books you reed. My grandmother used to say it was cyclical, much like farming, you knew when to sow seeds, when to expect a harvest by watching the weather. For wesen to flourish, it was important to watch the ‘seasons’ of who was top of that food chain, if you know what I mean. Wesen life under Grimm is different to when Royal have absolute power and I don’t even want to know what it is like under Zerstörer.”

“So what happens when a Zauberbiest comes to power?”

“Nothing good, I can guarantee it. They don’t like sharing power and everyone that stands in his way is not only fodder but they are in for a lot of pain.”

_Damn it._

“I kind of got it when Adalind decided she didn’t want Kelly to be with her at the office, after forcing Berman to allow it.”

“So what gives? I thought buying the books would ensure they didn’t fall into the hands of people like this Bonaparte fella. Isn’t that the goal, other than restocking your Grimm journals?”

“It is but not if it means putting Adalind’s life (and Kelly) in danger. She’s leaving for Leipzig tomorrow, to negotiate with your uncle on behalf of Bonaparte. She believes if I buy the books now, she can negotiate in with Felix in ‘good faith’ only to ‘discover’ he’s made the sale to the Portland Grimm, then she’ll return home with her bosses and client none the wiser that she’d acquired the books right from under their nose.”

“So you’re thinking since Bonaparte already knows you, it won’t be long till he makes the connection back to Adalind, that she played him?”

“He knows much more than that. He knows I am your uncle’s first choice and that Felix has delayed making the sale because we asked him for more time to get the money. On my own, it would have taken me to the end of the month before I could come up with the whole $100,000. Now if he got wind that I suddenly made the purchase, just when he sent a Hexenbiest to Germany sway Felix over to his side…it’s too clean to go unnoticed. Anyone would put 2 and 2 together.”

“So what do we do now, we can’t just sit and do nothing, I don’t want anything happening to my uncle.” Monroe grew tense suddenly.

“I didn’t say we weren’t going to do anything. Adalind told me the Zauberbiest doesn’t actually care about the journals; he’s only interested in one book, a Grimm genealogy book.”

“The book with the massive ‘G’ on the cover, the one Onkel Felix couldn’t open?”

“…Yeah. Apparently, there are names and maybe even addresses of every single Grimm in the world, whether or not they’ve received their sight. That’s nformation in the hands of Bonaparte is priceless and that’s the book we’re after. I don’t need a hundred grand for just one book. We take that one out of play, leaving the rest in the field—”

“So even if Bonaparte knows you have it, it won’t appear as though Adalind tipped you off when she threw us a lifeline with all of that money?”

“Exactly, I will focus his attention on me, instead of the Hexenbiest who did everything he asked and an appraiser who has a Grimm or two ready to defend him at the first sign of trouble. I already talked with Trubel, she’s been in Europe this whole time and now she’s on her way to Germany as we speak.

“With the Grim book firmly secured and out of contention, I have a feeling Bonaparte will not want to waste his money on the other books anyway as they hold very little value to wesen, especially one as powerful as him.”

Nick explained to them the deeper reason for so much subterfuge, the full nature of the Grimm Book and the consequences of it falling into the wrong hands, what had compelled Adalind to take the steps she did, Kelly.

“So this has to work and it will.” He said.

“Oh Nick, I hope you’re right.”

“Me too…I have to be or else I’ll have to employ plan ‘C’ and grab my machete and go hunting for a rare Zauberbiest, I don’t care who or what he is.

Monroe exclaimed with some excitement at the thought of Nick going all Grimm on his enemies.

“Monroe, let’s call your uncle before it gets too late in Leipzig with the time difference.”

“You know he’s expecting us to buy all twenty books, he may not like this.”

“Well, he’s gonna have to. It’s not just my son and Adalind’s life on the line. Felix can’t afford to play hardball, to protect everyone we love. No more wasting time, let’s get me that book.” Nick needn’t say anymore before Monroe rang up his uncle from his mother’s side of the family.

It took them nearly an hour haggling with the antiquarian for just one book, without giving him too much information other than a promise that the rest of the money would come soon. They didn’t want to alarm him and endanger him anymore than he already was. He begrudgingly agreed to sell them the Grimm book in a huff. Regarding the rest, Felix made a curt statement declaring he would not wait for them to come up with the rest of the money to purchase the rest of the books as per the courts that ordered the settling of Nebosja’s estate, but Nick wasn’t worried about that ever happening and thus he made the transaction.

“Alright, we got it but what do we do now?” Monroe asked Nick.

“Now we call Trubel, I will transfer what’s left of the money and she’ll be in standby for when Bonaparte realises he’s missed his chance and turns down the other books. She will handle the rest and Adalind can come home safe.”

“That’s a lot exchanging of hands for so much money. First Adalind, then you and now Trubel….”

“At this stage it’s necessary. None of this can ever be traced back to us, especially to Adalind. She still has to go back and work for these people after all of this is over.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“Of course he isn’t,” Rosalee added matter of fact.

“I’m not but let’s deal with one problem at a time. If all goes according to plan, we will all get everything we want.”

“Except for Bonaparte,” chimed Monroe.

“Yeah, except for Bonaparte.”

*/*/*


	8. Chapter 8

Much of her bravado dissipated upon her plane’s touchdown on the tarmac. Adalind had truly passed the point of no return. Rautbort had given her strict instruction to keep him well apprised of everything concerning her scheduled appointment with Monroe’s uncle, whilst remaining incommunicado with Nick during the whole of her trip to Germany. She felt much like a spy, a double agent of sorts but perhaps without the necessary skills to pull it off efficiently. It had been a while since she was in the game.

In the past, she had tried to fool too many people and it often backfired on her, one such a time was with Kenneth. He’d seen right through her ruse and practically set an angry Hexenbiest Juliette after her just for fun. There was nothing fun about having a stone statue nearly dropped on her head back then any more than jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire just to keep her employees from discovering the truth, but someone had to do it. She told Nick as much the night before leaving Portland.

She had come by the loft to drop of Kelly and instead walked into one more reason she was crazy for accepting this assignment and should have instead tendered in her resignation the instant she knew what Bonaparte was. Nick had cooked her an intimate dinner, a Piccata with a bottle of Chardonnay. Every time she walked into that loft, a wash of memories always overwhelmed her to the point she never wanted to leave but that night, Nick had made it infinitely more so.

She hadn’t planned to stay past dinner, yet he’d managed to sway her with just a look. Nick had a way with her that sometimes fried all of her senses, had he asked her to stay the night, Adalind was convinced wild horses could not drag her away. As if the cosmos had sensed her ever-growing weakness for the Grimm, Hank crashed the evening to bring his suspended partner the still unsolved case files needing his attention. She was literally saved by the bell, much to her relief…and great disappointment that there was no repeat of their previous “one night before a trip to Germany” ardent enactment.

*/*/*

Hardly an hour since arriving in Leipzig and already Adalind had a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach as if she was being watched from the shadows. At least once or twice, she turned to look behind her just to put her mind at ease but saw nobody conspicuous following her. Maybe she was being overly caution and thus imagined danger where there was none, _just relax,_ she thought in an attempt to calm her fraught nerves but it didn’t help and only walking through the hotel doors did she manage to breathe a sigh of relief but only briefly.

After she checked in at her hotel, she had herself a long and hot shower with the intention to take a long nap afterwards, to fight off her jetlag. She would not be able to check in with the office for several hours yet but there was the matter of Bonaparte’s connection that she expected to meet her at the airport. The fact that he hadn’t made any contact with her since she arrived was the least of Adalind’s concerns. It honestly was the furthest thing from her mind at that point, as she waged a battle within, using every ounce of will power she had to ignore the itching in her fingers to dial Nick’s number, or send him an email just to let him know she’d arrived safely.

Adalind huffed angrily at herself. _She really needed to find herself a new job because the paranoia that she was being watched was getting out of hand,_ she rebuked herself. 

Her head barely hit the pillow before a side, connecting door she hadn’t noticed before opened and a dark man crossed the threshold. Instinctively, Adalind tried to force the door shut with her powers but the man woged and his solid frame held the door in check, “Nuh-uh Ms Schade,” he rebuked her with a finger. He was a half-Zauberbiest, Just what she needed. “You’re late.”

“Who the heck are you?” She asked angrily as she quickly covered herself protectively in a soft hotel gown, which had lain across her bed, putting as much distance between herself and the intruding man.

“I’m your…associate for the duration of this business transaction. The name’s Anselmo Baledin. I work for Mr Bonaparte.”

_He meant he was her shadow, in case she stepped out of line and the very last thing she wanted._

“Pleased to meet you, now could you kindly get out of my room?”

“First we have to get through what’s expected of you tomorrow.”

“I already know what I am supposed to do; I do not need a chaperone.”

“Well, think of me as insurance. Mr Bonaparte has the utter most confidence you’ll succeed, from what Harrison Berman says about you. He can’t sing your praises enough. I’m just here to make your job a little easier.”

“Forgive me but that sounds more like you don’t trust me. If that’s the case, then why am I even here?”

“Mr Bonaparte has his own reasons; that’s all you need to know for now.” He said as he sat in one of the only two seats available in the hotel room.

That sent a chill down her spine, _what were these reasons? Into what mess had Adalind gotten herself?_

Baledin pulled out a folder from his briefcase, much like the one she brought from her office but instead of pictures of Grimm books, a dossier on the dead Grimm, this particular file had detailed information on Felix Dietrich. Her companion outlined the contents on the table between them, which comprised of Dietrich’s whole background, his career, his medical history down to his allergy to cashew nuts, friends, family, and everyone ever connected to him. She even saw a picture of Nick and Monroe taken in what she recognised as Stuttgart Airport in German, assuming it was during that trip to the Black Forest. Adalind stood very still, resisting the urge to grab the photo from the midst of the others and run her finger across the Grimm’s face, _not the kind of first impressions a Hexenbiest should be making,_ she thought wryly.

“What is all this?” She asked, feigning indifference.

“The better you know your target, the better you’ll perform.”

Adalind’s blood ran cold _. If they did a background check on the antiquarian, how far would they have to dig before they came to her and Kelly? They were already playing six degrees to the Grimm without even knowing it._

“Perform? I’m not a show pony.” She declared huffily. Her abrasive manner, antagonistic towards her companion, it was both an act as much as it was genuine.

“You are working for Bonaparte and he expects results. He is not a man who easily gives away his trust, so I suggest you put your injured sensibilities aside and focus.”

Now more than ever she wished she had half the skill as Henrietta to coax people to do what she desired, without making a hash of it. She’d make Baledin spill everything he had on Conrad Bonaparte and this supposed interest he had in her, and he wouldn’t know she’d tempered with his agency.

Adalind took her seat and began studying Felix Dietrich’s life. The whole spectacle was futile. She could have told him it took more than peeping invasively into someone personal life in order to manipulate successfully into thinking an external thought or an action originated with them but that would be counterproductive to her to her ultimate goal.

At the very least, she knew there was more to this trip than just getting a Grimm Book; Bonaparte had something grander at play. Someone with as much power and as many connections as she assumed he had could have acquired the books much sooner than this, and perhaps with Monroe’s uncle long dead. However, she didn’t want to think about that, what that could mean for her if she failed. She was in some sort of elaborate game and sensed the stakes were astronomically high, if only she had all the cards on the table. Adalind hoped Bonaparte was as lacking in that regard, whatever his true endgame was. Adalind suspected it was something sinister.

“Fine, the sooner we get through this, the sooner I can rest.” She said testily, “You do want me fresh and well rested for tomorrow.” She said, hoping he got the hint she wanted to be alone.

She spent up to almost one whole hour under Baledin’s intense scrutiny. He quizzed her on all she’d learnt about Felix but it seemed closer to an interrogation on her and her skill for the job, a complete waste of time if he knew what she was truly capable of in terms of her skillset. Most wesen made this mistake about Hexenbiests, the assumption that they could do anything because magic. The wide array of magic available didn’t necessarily mean they could do it all, not without serious study and that took time, something she didn’t have. Therefore, nothing of what took place in that hotel room was relevant to what she’d been tasked but Adalind indulged him, hoping to get rid of him sooner rather than later.

Once upon a time, she could have whipped together a potion in record time and be done with this whole charade. It’s what she was good at, “good” being a relative term considering the far-reaching consequences of such magic. _If Bonaparte had requested a spell, a potion, something in her wheelhouse and if she hadn’t gone through the life changing transformation with the birth of her children or fallen in love with a man that actually inspired her to be better, she would have easily jumped at the chance to do as told. In fact, she would have gone above and beyond because he was a full Zauberbiest with power and influence rivalling even the Royals and to any Hexenbiest that was more than enough to bind oneself to such for all eternity._ She cringed at the unbidden thought.

Thankfully, _that_ Adalind was long and thoroughly dead, despite the Hexenbiest still within. Every so often, she’d wake very early in the morning to perform some sort of examination on herself…a sort of physical where she’d exercise her abilities. She’d measure them in relation to her predominating thoughts, a welling up of emotions, good, and bad, without any outside distractions, just to see what had changed inside and what had remained. Something was certainly different about her and she couldn’t pinpoint to the reason why. She didn’t think B.R.&A. would appreciate this bit of a revelation concerning her change of character, but personally, she was rather relieved, grateful she was no longer the same person as before.

Finally, Baledin seemed satisfied with her and made a silent exit through the same door he’d entered her room. She moved to lock the door behind him and found the key missing but that wasn’t a problem for her. Adalind forced the door locked, making as big of a scene as she could, in case the half-Zauberbiest didn’t get the message she didn’t appreciate the intrusion of her personal space without her consent.

*/*/*

The meeting with Dietrich had taken an unexpected turn. Adalind hadn’t known what to expect going into the meeting with the elderly Blutbad, she certainly didn’t expect to find seventeen of the twenty books still available for purchase. Her first impression was that something terrible had happened to Nick, or else he would have bought all of the books. He needed every single one of them after he’d lost so many to the fire. Her more terrifying thought was that had happen to her precious son and the thought almost broke her.

She couldn’t afford think that way, especially in front of Bonaparte’s operative stalking he every move, keeping his dark beady eyes on her at all time since they entered Felix’s shop. She still had a part to play and she wouldn’t disappoint.

As for Dietrich, from the moment they’d entered the book collector’s shop, he had resisted her attempts at negotiating, citing his distance for the Zauberbiest. Bonaparte’s reputation clearly preceded him and Adalind couldn’t blame the old man, she felt the same. She knew Bonaparte wasn’t interested in the rest of the journals, while she was more than happy to walk away empty handed, it was not an option, she needed to make a spectacle of the meeting, for the benefit of fooling her employers or risk her son’s life, and _that_ was not an option.

At first, she had leaned heavily on her skills as a lawyer, to talk the old man into seeing things her way, trying to sell Bonaparte as some fervent collector of rare books who was willing to pay any exorbitant amount for the Nebosja collection. He never bit. Baledin, who’d remained much like Adalind’s shadow all morning, dark and silent, eventually made his presence felt and had pushed for her to do what she’d been hired to do.

If Dietrich had been stubborn, Adalind’s Biest had grown equally obstinate as she sought a way around forcefully manipulating Monroe’s uncle, nothing truly invasive, with long lasting effects, a consequence of tempering with someone’s mind often entails. Since regaining her abilities, the number of times Adalind used them against others was limited at best, almost non-existent. She’d sometimes wondered if her six-month stint as a human had altered her emotionally, creating a mental barrier that made her recoil at the thought of hexing someone. Her desire to use her powers had not only dwindled, she had even wished her abilities downright gone for good.

However, that particular morning, she’d felt a conflict of emotions, yes she wanted her powers gone, they were a burden she didn’t want anymore, a curse but then again, how could she protect her son from those who’d do him harm if she too was equally helpless? She had to protect him, as well as Nick and now Felix, all the while playing the part of a loyal employee who still craved power and prestige willing to do anything for her boss. If she wasn’t careful, that was too many plates in the air, one mistake, they could all come crashing hard around her.

It was then that Dietrich relented and allowed them to see the remaining books, at a reduced price to account for the sold three. A lanky man, possibly in his early twenties had entered the shop through a side door carrying on his scrawny little back a large heavy wooden chest. He’d set it by the long wooden table at the Blutbad’s instruction before disappearing again through the same door, without saying a word.

Adalind had held her breath as Felix laid the books one at a time, across the table for their perusal.

“It’s not here!” She breathed with relief but quickly checked herself as she saw the stormy look behind Baledin’s eyes. He saw the same thing but unlike her, he was boiling with fury. When he began to question Dietrich, Adalind knew she needed to wrestle back control and ended up needling Dietrich for information on the buyer, as a means to lure Baledin from strangling the Blutbad for doing what was well within his rights.

“I’ve got this,” she said to her belligerent companion, as she put her hand on his chest as if to push him back, away from Felix. “ _Herr_ Dietrich, I’m sure you are aware my client was interested in one particularly book, he was willing to buy the whole collection and getting it off your hands as quickly as possible and it’s one the books missing from among these. I’m sure we can still come to an agreement for the rest if you could tell us to whom you’ve sold this book. All I am asking for is a name.” She smiled kindly as she tried to sweeten a deal that more than like had gone bust.

“I’m sorry, _Fräulein_ Schade, that is not customary, giving out that information.”

She sensed his hesitation but knew it was fleeting, he’d been on a tight schedule before today so she brought up the matter of the courts needing to settle Nebosja’s estate and his whole body became jittery, a ball of nerves and it wouldn’t take much to pull the right thread and get what she wanted and relieve that pressure.

“This is waste of time,” Baledin barked and woged, laying his hands on Felix’s neck to throttle him.

Dietrich’s eyes bulged wide as he fearfully read the threat to his life rightly so, woging in response, but with little effect against a half Zauberbiest that was probably half his age and twice his size.

“Back off,” she turned to Baledin, staring daggers at him.

It was enough to calm Felix and he transformed to his human features, all the while keeping his eyes on Adalind, “Burkhardt…I sold the book to a Mr Burkhardt in the US,” he finally said. Adalind was glad to have not needed her powers but was sorry it took the half-Zauberbiest’s threatening demeanour to loosen his tight lips.

With this information, Baledin pulled out his cell phone, stepped a few feet away and dialled what she concluded was his boss’ number.

Relieved for the reprieve, Adalind continued her dialogue with the old dealer but the heated telephone conversation happening just behind her drew most of her attention. Bonaparte was furious, he’d lost his prized goal and that meant Kelly was safe but the game wasn’t over yet. She knew they wouldn’t be satisfied with just a name. Adalind managed to glean more details of the sale, when it happened, which courier Dietrich used to ship the book to Portland.

By the time she finished, Baledin had ended his call and joined them and Adalind presented him with a piece of paper on which she’d written she thought she thought he’d want to know concerning the sale of the book, while short of actually handing it over to him on a silver platter. She hoped to buy Nick more time while Bonaparte and his dog go on a wild goose chase all over Germany trying to track it. “I believe my job here is complete.” She said intentionally, hoping it was enough to leave the shop without further incident.

Baledin examined it. Satisfied, he then turned to Monroe’s uncle and told him, in no uncertain terms, they would not be dealing with him any longer, he could burn the books for all he cared and walked out of the shop. Felix gasped in horror, Adalind imagined he was more upset at the prospect of old dusty books burning than a half Zauberbiest ripping him to shreds and for some reasons, it make Adalind smile to herself.

She made her apologies and thanked Dietrich for his assistance for which he was confused as light fog began to settle in the corners of his mind, tendrils that wrapped themselves around memories of Baledin that had seared his mind like a hot iron. It’d been over a year since she last used her abilities on someone other than herself, she was glad, at least, to use them for something good. _He’d know peace once again though he would not remember their faces once she left his shop._ Adalind thought, better that than the other more violent alternative. She couldn’t allow any harm to come to Felix, more so as he was Monroe’s uncle.

Baledin was waiting for her just as she stepped out into the bright early noon sunshine, his expression a blank slate. “This is where we part ways, as you’ve said, your job here is complete.” He said calmly as if he’d flipped a switch on his emotions.

“What about the—” She made a show of protesting.

“What happens now is no longer your concern. The book is _en route_ to Portland, and nothing here henceforth requires your skills, as a lawyer or a witch. You are free to home, Ms Schade. Goodbye,” and with that, he left her on the sidewalk. The more reckless side of her would have demanded more, the more foolish, destructive side of her would have offered another chance to prove herself, to rise in the ranks, but her heart lay elsewhere.

She needed to call Nick and get answers as to what happened to their original plan. _He must have had a good reason,_ she thought. She trusted he knew what he was doing but then she had to warn him about Baledin that he planned to intercept the book before it reached him but she didn’t trust that she was finally free of Bonaparte and his minion, not when she still could not shake the sense of being watched.

She cursed being so far away from home. She missed her baby too much and wished she could at least hear Nick’s voice tell her it would all be okay, that there was nothing to worry about, maybe then she’d actually believe it. She consoled herself with the thought of seeing them soon.

When she returned to the hotel, the _portier_ informed her of Baledin checking out, _fabulous news,_ but then an envelope from her office had awaited her with additional instructions, _terrible news,_ she sighed, exhausted from earlier _._ She waited until she was in her room before she opened the letter. She checked the connecting door, just to be sure Baledin had actually left the hotel. She found her key back in the lock and the door locked on both sides of the room, _good._

Sadly, that was the extent of Adalind’s good fortune. She learnt, from the letter, that her flight back to Portland was no longer for later that afternoon, as originally scheduled. Berman, her other snake of a boss wanted her to run a little errand to Stuttgart much to her dismay, which meant she’d spend a few days more in Germany that’s she’d originally hoped. It would become the longest time she’d ever spent away from Kelly; something not only abhorrent to Adalind but also panic inducing, as she’d discovered the first night she spent without her son.

She’d experienced what she could only term as a waking nightmare, akin to her hellish stint in Viktor’s dungeon. It had been the toughest two days of her life since she lost Diana. She barely slept a wink from the night she left him at the loft to the moment she picked him up two mornings after. Berman had thrown a fit when she’d cancelled all her meetings that day and called in a sick day that last three days.

Being without Kelly, always made her edgy but over the past several weeks, she’d managed to bottle down most of her anxiety, not wanting Nick to know just how much the separation affected her, if it was hard on her, how much so for Nick? She had sometimes wondered. She could not imagine how he took being away from his son at least five whole days in a week. Adalind was certain she’d go crazy. She most certainly did when she lost her daughter and just like that, Adalind took a tumble down the rabbit hole of despair as a vicious circle of thoughts and a familiar soul-crushing pang stabbed her through the heart.

Diana.

Adalind doubled over as if in physical pain as she collapsed onto the bed. Her anxiety had peaked as guilt swept over her over her Diana. She curled up in a foetal position, giving in to grief as she wondered to her baby girl’s whereabouts, like a shadow that would never leave her.

 _Would she be able to recognise her own daughter after so much time had passed? Did Diana even remember her? Was she alive?_ On and on the thoughts rang loudly in her head. _What if she returned home and found Kelly gone just like Diana and she’d be all alone with no one to love her? Maybe_ _deserved to suffer for all the horrible things she’d done in the past, that no amount of atoning made up for any it._

With those dark thoughts, she cried herself to sleep.

A feint ringing of her cell phone roused back to the world of the living. She opened her heavy eyelids and realised it was late afternoon, judging by the tall shadows in her room. She ignored it. Letting it ring, thinking it was from her office. _Maybe they’d give up after a few tries,_ she thought, physically and emotionally drained but it just kept ringing and ringing relentlessly, the caller clearly as stubborn as she was.

When she finally caved and threw herself off the bed to go fishing through her handbag for the little device, she wanted to chuck it hard against the wall to silence the annoying sound. The caller ID claimed it was an unknown number, which only may her more annoyed.

She answered what turned out to be a video call, “Hello, whoever you are, you got the wrong number!” she said angrily and would have hung up, had it not been for one little word with two syllables that meant the world to her, “Mam-ma.” She heard a tiny little voice. Then the most beautiful and chubbiest little face covered the screen.

Kelly!

Hot tears welled up and began to stream furiously down her face as she watched her little angle thousands of miles across the Atlantic.

“Oh Kel….” She wept freely, wishing she could take him into her arms and never let go, not for anything in the world.

“Say hi Mama. Tell her how much you miss her and cannot wait for her to come home,” she heard Nick say but his face remained hidden from the camera’s view.

“Mam-ma” Kelly called out her name repeatedly through his chew toy.

“Yeah, I miss you too, my darling boy.” she cried. The ache in her chest intensified with longing.

“Do you want to show Mama what we did today?” Said Nick excitedly.,

If she could, she would have kissed him right then as if he knew she had needed that call to lift her spirits. Tears of joy and not grief fogged up her eyes as she tried to make out the images playing out before her.

“What have you been up to Kel-bell, do you want to show Mama?” she said encouragingly.

“Is Mama feeling alright?” Nick cut in, she heard the concern in his voice, despite not seeing his face, careful to keep his phone pointed away from him.

“She is now after seeing that gorgeous little face. It’s just…it’s been a long day and I miss—”

“ _We_ miss you too. It hasn’t been the same without you….” He said.

There was so much more she wanted to say but Adalind knew she couldn’t. “Thank you…for this, the call. I needed it,” she said.

“It was the least I could do.” He replied.

“Now what is this that you wanted to show me?” she said after about a minute of weighty silence between them, trying to lighten the tone.

“We’ve got ourselves an artist to rival even the great Picasso and he’s not even a year old. We were doing a little arts and craft this morning and he produced this masterpiece. Check it out….” She could hear the joyous laughter in Nick’s voice as he held up a brightly painted piece of paper with tiny little multi-coloured palms and fingered squiggles, which made Adalind laugh.

“Oh sweetheart, that is so beautiful,” she said. “Mama loves it.”

“We’re going to have it framed, how much do you think it will go for?”

“Twenty million, at least,” She managed to crack a joke.

“What?! I say a hundred and not a penny less. Kelly’s a prodigy, just look at him,” Nick held the camera on Kelly as he babbled happily in his playpen, reciting all the fun things they did together. Adalind laughed heartily.

“So when are you coming home?”

“Soon,” she said hopeful.

*/*/*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the late update, I have not abandoned this story and intend to finish it. I hope you've enjoyed this update. Please don't be shy with your reviews.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new update! Some of the details in this chapter are fuzzy, bear with me if they don’t correspond with the show, but then again, this story is canon divergent, which means these details don’t matter very much, lol. I apologise in advance for any grammatical errors, I haven’t had time to write, let alone to proof read this rather long chapter. I hope you all enjoy. Hit me up with your reviews, they are appreciated.

“There’s been another decapitation,” said Renard behind his desk in his office.

“So I hear,” replied Nick casually, although feeling anything.

Despite his feeling toward Sean Renard, Nick didn’t want to be a smartass considering the seriousness of the topic of conversation but he’d already been neck deep working this case when Renard suspended him over the little tussle with one of Sweet Robin’s former Blutbad buddies. Nick barely touched the guy before Renard threw the book at him, “…To make an example of him.” He’d crowed arrogantly towards Nick. Since then, the air between them had grown glacial to say the least.

The Captain had called Nick into the Precinct two weeks after he’d “instructed” him to take some time off and though Nick had obliged, that morning, he’d taken a detour before meeting up with his boss.

It was in connection to a promise he’d made to Adalind just before she left for Germany, that he’d reimburse her the money she’d given him for Nebosja’s books. Nick had met with the man who had made an offer to take Nick’s vacant land off his hands for a reasonable sum. It was less than he’d hoped but better than he’d expected for the wooded piece of ground. Adalind had tried to brush it off her offering, saying the money didn’t matter, that she did for Kelly who was as much her son as his but he would have none of it. They ultimately settled on going 50/50 for the books. That morning, it looked as though he’d make good on that promise and was feeling somewhat chirpy entering the Captain’s office, Kelly, nestled soundly in the crook of his arm.

Renard shot him a foul look for his nonchalant response and the fact that he didn’t come alone, which Nick easily ignored. With Adalind still away, Kelly never left his side. He knew he could have left him with Rosalee at the Spice Shop, she’d happily offered to take him off his hands for a few hours that day but Nick had kindly turned her down.

“You didn’t have to bring him here,” said the Captain.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option, I’m suspended remember, and not for just a week like a thought, but you added another seven days so wherever I go, he goes, at least until his mother gets back from her business trip.” Nick said stiffly.

The Captain grunted under his breath.

Things between the two of them had grown particularly glacial ever since Adalind returned to Portland and showed up heavily pregnant to the Precinct, seeking Nick’s protection. It’s not as thought things hadn’t been tense before. The truth was that neither Nick nor Renard had any reason to trust one another, but over the years, they’d carved up a workable relationship, not only between the detective and his Captain but also between the Grimm and the half-Zauberbiest.

It had made Nick’s work over the past seven years quite interesting, the blurring line of authority, the constant shift in power, much to Renard’s vexation. The half wesen Royal Prince loathed having power and control usurped from his hands and non-more so than in the last couple of years as Nick grew into his heritage, exerting the authority innate and embracing the Grimm within. Additionally, it’s what had ultimately destroyed his relationship with Juliette. They’d reached a point where he simply couldn’t pretend to be nothing more than a police detective any longer, content only with catching criminals when so much more lay beneath the surface, be it injustice or evil the Kehrseite justice was ill equipped to deal with thoroughly.

Nick could not freely turn a blind eye to the truth, despising his higher calling, all in the name of giving Juliette what she wanted; normalcy. He wanted to, to want what she wanted but it was impossible, his spirit within had grown restless with each passing day as he sensed the turmoil around but had been rendered powerless to confront it, until it came knocking on his best friends’ door in the form of the Wesenrein. Much to his relief, Nick had gotten his abilities back but at a great cost, Juliette’s humanity, the only thing he regretted.

At first, Nick was certain the Captain was happy to have the Grimm back. After all, the Hundjager almost killed him before he tried to get the potion that would have reversed the effects of the spell robbing Nick of his “gift”. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent to Nick, as with all of their dealings between them in the past, that Renard's self-serving trait dominated everything about the man.

Nick had finally accepted that Renards only cared as far as the situation allowed him to have an advantage. Yes, he’d wanted the Grimm back but only for him to exert his control over Nick. It harkened back to Nick’s first year when he first got his sight, when he, ironically, had been blinded by the Captain’s behind-the-scenes manipulations as he used Adalind against Nick.

_Could that be it, could Adalind be the reason things between him and Renard had grown relentlessly cold in the past year, the longest time since Nick had transferred to Portland Central Precinct?_

Nick remembered how Renard had tried to wash his hands off Adalind, absolving himself of all culpability for everything that had went down between them the day she revealed to them her pregnancy with his son. Nick couldn’t help but wonder if his Captain was having second thoughts. Adalind had done something neither of them saw coming, she’d changed her life and perhaps that had affected both men in ways neither could have foreseen. Nick had fallen in love with the mother of his son and as for Renard; Nick didn’t know what he was other than visibly perturbed Adalind had summarily extricated herself from his grasp and control.

_Could it be jealousy?_

Renard had not only lost his patsy, but he’d finally lost the one person who’d been exceptionally loyal to him, to the point of nearly destroying Nick’s world. Looking back, Nick had rued his complicity in falling for Renard’s nonsense from the start. Adalind had it correct that day when all three of them stood in that very office, a very round pregnant belly between her and Nick. She wasn’t the only one responsible for the mess that had been their lives. Renard had orchestrated Adalind’s attacks on the people in Nick’s life, from his Aunt Marie, to Hank but Nick had also played his part, in a domino effect sequence of events that had finally resulted in Juliette’s life destroyed beyond repair, his own mother dead and Diana missing. 

“Well, you broke a man’s nose and cracked several of his ribs.”

“After finding out about Robin Jaeger and what he and his friends had been up to for years, I say he got off lightly. Just because he wasn’t our perp in this particular case doesn’t mean he wasn’t guilty of goodness knows how many murders or missing person’s cases that remain unsolved today because people didn’t do their job.”

Renard took that a slight against his honour as a police officer.

“Careful there Nick, you forget who you’re talking to.” Renard bristled with restrained fury.

“Oh I know exactly who I am talking to,” said Nick, implying the Captain had forgotten to whom he was talking.

“This department could be sued because of your recklessness.”

“You know we won’t. He’s a killer whose time on the outside is numbered.”

“You think because you’re Grimm—”

“Look, why did you call me in. I’m not interested in going over this again with you.” Nick cut him short, which only inflamed his Captain even more, his attempt to exert power through his position flagging as he sat imposingly behind his large desk while Nick had remained on his feet. To any passer-by, it was easy to assume which of the two men was actually in control.

“Here…” the Captain pulled Nick’s gun and badge and tossed them across his desk towards Nick.

“What’s this?”

“What does it look like? It wasn’t my decision. If I had it my way, your fortnight would have turned into three months, without pay.”

Nick grinned inwardly, _so that’s how it felt to have all of the strings cut,_ he thought to himself.

“Good thing you’re not in charge.” Nick said unaffectedly, he was past the point of caring for Renard’s feelings. His respect for the job didn’t need to extend to his duplicitous and literal two-faced police Captain. Over the years, Nick had often towed the line, falling short of antagonising his Captain who had enough incriminating evidence on Nick, the Grimm to have him arrested and tried for murder but Renard, knowing that Nick too could do the same to him always gave him pause. For so long he’d deceived himself into thinking he and the Captain were on the same side when they weren’t. Freedom, Nick felt, had never tasted sweeter.

“We have a situation on our hands and my higher ups want it resolved ASAP, before the media and eventually all of Portland gets wind of this and panic sets in. It’s hard enough keeping details of this case from leaking out of the Precinct as its profile has now caught the attention of my superiors. They’d appreciate the closing of this case long before the Feds come busting through our doors and pissing all over everything we’ve done to try and catch this guy.”

“I agree.” Nick couldn’t argue to that fact. At least they were on the same side about one thing.

There’d been three murders all eerily similar, decapitation and most if not all identifiable marks removed. None of the victims had anything in common except the manner in which they were mutilated, killed, and even then, the details varied from one victim to the next, to make Nick’s job difficult but not impossible.

“I take it Griffin’s been sharing with you and you are up to speed with everything?”

“Yeah, I know that the latest victim is female, she was found 2 days ago in an alleyway, behind the drugs store on Gordon’s. There’s surveillance across the two adjoining streets but nothing we can use. It’s as if the killer knows where not to walk. She was naked covered with bloody newspapers and trash. She was an addict judging by the needle marks found on her arms, behind her knees and both of her big toes.”

“What are you thinking?” Renard asked.

“I don’t know what to think, besides the decapitations there’s nothing else about their murders that links these three people together, except maybe the scenes of the crimes. All three were found in some kind of shop. Maybe that is the connection, the pet hotel, the antique shop and now drug store. Maybe the killer has something against all three, a past injustice or—”

“Or maybe our killer is a Grimm.” Renard dropped a bomb between them.

“You’re kidding right?”

“I’m not. Maybe the decapitation _is_ the connection. Isn’t that what your kind does, decapitate people?”

_What was Renard driving at? Was this his way of sticking it to Nick?_

“You said it yourself. The vics have nothing in common, except how they died.

“…Except Jennifer O’Dair was all human from Boston. We know what Jaeger was; this latest victim was probably a homeless, opioid addict who found herself at the wrong place at the wrong time. It doesn’t track. I’ll give you Sweet Robin but not the other two.”

“Who are you trying to convince with that? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you did it. It’s happened before, attacking innocent people until only one was left standing. Maybe Adalind leaving you caused you to snap and now have decided to follow after your ancestors’ ways.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it!” He barked at the Captain, which violently roused Kelly from his semi-sleep and he began to cry.

“I never thought I’d see it…Adalind. She has you wrapped around her little finger, or is it her soft thighs, that you’ve lost yourself. Forgotten the man you are. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your more violent streak rearing itself ever since she dumped you. Terry Wagner’s broken nose and cracked ribs weren’t the first victim of Nicholas Burkhardt, the Grimm.”

“You asshole, leave her out of this!” Nick fumed as he stepped closer until the large desk blocked his path and he towered over Sean Renard.

The Captain smirked from his chair. “Don’t you worry Nick; I already know you didn’t do it. I just wanted to see something. Who would have thought, a Grimm with a Hexenbiest? I thought you were at least smarter than that, falling for that—”

“Be careful of what you say next if you really want to see me forget myself. It’s for the respect of my son you’re not flat on your back with more than just a broken nose and a few cracked ribs.”

“…As if you’d dare….”

“Try me and find out.”

He didn’t.

Nick grabbed his badge and gun and walked out of Renard’s office without so much as a backward glance, recognizing that the day he and Renard would finally settle things between them once and for all, had long past due. When two opposing forces come together, it made sense one would have to give way to the other, stronger force, and Nick could hardly wait to wipe the smug off the half wesen Royal Prince of Portland!

*/*/*

His temper hadn’t subsided one bit as he pulled up into his garage after his meeting with his Captain, his own fault for letting Renard get under his skin the way he had. It led Nick to changing his mind with Kelly and take Rosalee up on her offer to watch him for a few hours so he could blow off some steam at the shooting range. It was either that, or deck someone with his fists but that had gotten him into too much trouble as it was already, so he went shooting instead.

Emptying several clips on an immovable target only relieved him of some of the tension built up from earlier and not all. Nick cursed himself, _since when did her let his emotions get the better of him? Since it was Renard,_ the hideous thought thundered against his frontal lobe.

His whole life, Nick had learnt to compartmentalise, from his job, his Grimm life, his emotions, a by-product of losing his parents at an early age and trekking through half of the country with his Aunt Marie as she raised him up. Because they never stayed in one town too long for him to form any meaningful relationships, Nick had grown accustomed to bottling up everything, “a defence mechanism,” said one child psychologist.

If he never put himself out there, there’d be zero probability for getting hurt. This philosophy had worked marvellously until his move to Portland when they stationed him at the PCP and he met Juliette. He thought he’d gone against the grain when he let himself feel for another person. Juliette was not his first love, but she was his longest love, the one he thought would last a lifetime. She was the one he let himself believe was the _one_ so he went and bought her a ring. He loved her and that had been the most logical thing to do, the “next step” in their relationship, somewhat, a calculated move not driven entirely by a deep wealth of emotions.

When he’d asked Juliette to marry him and she had turned him down, he hadn’t lose it. They’d work things out, he told himself, a reasonable expectation in an unconventional situation. When he lost his aunt and all sorts of crazy bust through his house almost weekly because he was a Grimm, he grieved but stoically doubled down on his duties and dealt the chaos in his life without missing a beat. Everything that life threw at him, Nick always managed to get on top of every circumstance with a tenacious grip over his emotions, no matter how heated things got. Only with his mother’s death did he give in to the fullness of his rage.

Before that day, Nick never saw himself as someone with sensitive buttons for others to push until Renard said Adalind’s name, specifically how he said her name, noticeably too familiar. Nick’s gut coiled in anger with each syllable the Captain had spoken, had it not been for Kelly, Nick was as sure as the sky was blue, he would have ripped the Captain’s head from his neck.

The night Juliette disappeared, the night she could have killed him, she’d told Nick everything she’d done during her twisted bend for vengeance, wanting to inflict as much pain on him as she could when it dawned on her that killing him would not ease her pain. She knew how to cut him, destroying what little trust he had in her, and ultimately the love that he’d felt for her but he believed not a single word of it. He didn’t want to.

Moreover, the Captain had carried himself as normal, nothing short of Nick’s ally. He never once alluded to anything having happened between him and Juliette so Nick had foolishly brushed the betrayal aside, chucking it as nothing more that the ramblings of an embittered, angry Juliette, _until today,_ he thought. Juliette had made a fool of him with his boss _and that bastard tried to come at him through Adalind, knowing exactly how Nick would react._

He felt his blood begin to boil at the memory from that morning’s meeting but reined it in as he entered his darkened loft with his son tucked safely in his arms. Although Nick recognised his Captain’s wounded animal-like attack for what it was, desperate, unfortunately, the sting still made its mark. He wanted to kick himself for showing his emotions so carelessly in front of his enemy, because that is what Renard was truly, underneath all of his moral platitudes because he wore the same badge as Nick.

“Shit.” He growled between his teeth as his foot caught on something heavy on the floor, almost causing him to stumble before he flicked the switch for some light. He apologised to his son for the profanity while seeking the immediate source of his frustration. It was a piece of black luggage that he couldn’t remember leaving in that spot that morning. Then an excited calm swept over him as he saw a pair of navy pumps peaking behind the leather case and he rushed up to his bedroom door and saw a dark but familiar silhouette lay across his bed. He froze, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes but then again he did have great eyesight, in fact, better than great.

“Adalind….” He said her name softly, almost reverentially and it was enough to rouse her from her sleep.

“Nick,” she called out his name, as if coming out of a thick fog into the glorious light of day. Sheepishly, he smiled to himself thinking his name had never sounded as melodic as it did from her lips.

Adalind bolted from the bed and flung her arms around both him and Kelly, and caused his whole body to quiver with intoxicating joy. Hardly a year since Kelly’s birth and he still couldn’t believe the effect this woman had on him…a certain power over him and expectedly he’d fought it because it was the sensible thing to do. This was Adalind Schade after all.

In the beginning, he had first denied it to Hank, the day they first locked eyes on each other from across the street. He’d denied it to himself, the day they sat face to face in a hotel room while a Queen Mellifer hunted her down. He’d denied it to Adalind herself when she smiled at him seductively with the jail bars fixed firmly between them. He even denied it to Juliette at the Precinct on the day she’d accused him of harbouring illicit feelings for the blonde Hexenbiest but now as he inched ever closer towards bedside, towards _her_ , Nick realised then that all of those times he had lied to everyone, himself included. Of late, not only did Nick stop fighting, he willingly gave himself up to this fact, and it felt right, freeing.

He held on tightly, making a squishy sandwich of Kelly who was unimpressed with his father’s ardent hold, as if he were afraid to let them go. A mistake he intended never to repeat ever again.

Nick drank her in, inhaling deeply her sweet scent, wanting it to fill his senses to overflowing. Before that moment, he could never quantify the true depth of the longing he’d felt in the months passed without her.

“Hey,” he said finally.

“Hi,” she sighed with what sounded like relief but immediately stepped out of his embrace as though she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t, much to Nick disappointment. Instinctively, he released Kelly for mother and son to have this time to themselves after what he sensed was a harrowing period of separation for Adalind.

He swallowed the surging ache in his arms that extended all the way to his heart as she stepped even further away from him, _was that the first time he’d held her in his arms in months?_ The thought cut him in ways he hadn’t expected. Adalind leaving him exposed a gash within that hadn’t closed, rather it grew deep, and wide for every day he spent apart from her. He’d spent months alone, morose, _all for what…pride…prejudice. Resentment for old wounds inflicted in a different time?_ It wasn’t as though he himself had been innocent.

Now he felt overwhelmed with uncertainty, not sure how to proceed as he watched the unfolding scene, like an outsider intruding on something private. They were _his_ family and he certainly belonged to be in those scenes, relieved they were finally together again.

He wanted to kick himself for, as Monroe was now so quick to point out, his reticence; a far cry from the man only a few weeks ago who was ready to open up and allow himself to live the life he wanted with the woman he knew he loved. Nothing had changed other than how intensely he felt.

Unable to hold back any longer, Nick strode to sit by her side, noting the little gasp that escaped her lips.

Adalind clung a bit more tightly to their son, her heart racing to the same beat as his. His hands balled nervously into fists. It was either that, or shoving them deep into his pockets lest they wander of their own accord drawn to her cascading locks like a siren’s call. In truth, he couldn’t just sit there, say and do nothing but wait for her to make the first move as she sometimes did when they still lived together.

Having no hand to hold, Nick laid his one hand on her knee, no higher despite the throbbing temptation.

The fact that she didn’t shake it off thrilled him but his voice remained as controlled as ever when his first words to her were, “You should have told me you were coming back today. I would have fetched you from the airport.”

No, he wouldn’t have. They both knew it but it was not for lack of wanting on his part. It didn’t hurt saying it because he wanted it to be true regardless.

“It wasn’t necessary…but I would have liked that.” She shifted Kelly’s weight in her arms and laid her newly free hand over his and Nick curled his fingers around it.

He had a million questions, questions he couldn’t come out and ask in the handful of video calls he’d made during the time she was away, like what happened with Felix (he knew because of Monroe but wanted to hear it from her lips as if to reassure him she was alright…safe). He also wanted to know why she hadn’t come home as soon as the Bonaparte deal fell through.

“Nick…about the books, I’ve good some good news and some bad news.” She said sombrely.

“Don’t worry about tha—”

“Bonaparte didn’t get the book but I don’t know who did.”

“I know—”

“By the time we met Monroe’s uncle, he’d already sold the book, a couple to be exact—wait, what do you mean you know? How?” she raised her brow at him questioningly, almost demandingly. He smiled to himself, finding that little quirk adorable suddenly.

“It’s a long story actually,” he said sheepishly, now embarrassed he’d gone behind her back after she’d entrusted all of that money into his hands.

“Monroe, of course, he must have spoken to his uncle about what happened in Germany.”

“Not exactly,” He said and got up from the bed and walked to the far end of the bedroom, just behind the stairs that lead up to the roof and dragged a large wooden chest into view. “They are all here, I mean the books. We got them all, thanks to you.” He said proudly. “

“I don’t understand.” She said confused.

“I mean, our son is safe, no one will ever hurt him, not with you or both of us to make certain of it.”

“Oh Nick…” She made her way to where he stood.

He watched as sweet relief washed over her face. It worked something deep inside his chest to see her reaction. _These were Grimm books, which brimmed with tales of his ancestors and their often-deadly exploits against wesen-kind and probably against some of which were_ her _ancestors,_ he thought. In spite of that, Nick couldn’t mistake the pure joy on her face as she looked down at the treasure trove.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything before. I really wanted to believe me but we didn’t know who could be listening, if anyone at all and I knew you wouldn’t want me to chance it.” He desperately wanted to hug her.

As if she read his mind, Adalind, awkwardly wrapped one of her arms around him, leaning gently against his broad chest. It amazed him how she fit him so perfectly, not just in a physical sense but something deeper than that. He felt at ease being in Adalind’s arms. All the tension he felt from early that day, week, the last three months melted away in that simple embrace. As cliché as it sounded, Nick was finally at home in the arms of the blonde Hexenbiest. His whole life, he’d never known the encompassing peace he felt in that very moment, but also the all-consuming fear brought on by being away from her.

“I cannot imagine how worried you must have been all that time, I am sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” She muffled against his jacket. _He missed this all too much, having her so near._

How long they held on to one another, he couldn’t tell. It was all too much for him, not even with Juliette did he ever feel such dizzying highs, which, ironically, equalled his deepest lows. There was no any middle ground where Adalind was concerned. She always could extract from him the most candid and extremely intense reaction without even trying.

“You’ve no idea how much I missed you.” This time he would not let her go. “Honestly, I was probably just as worried about you. Rosalee had to talk me down a number of times to keep me from flying all the way to Germany and bring you home.”

“She did?” His confession lightened up her face. “You could have fooled me.” She added, alluding to their few calls continents apart. Nick had intentionally kept their calls light, focusing on their son and whatever new adorable things he’d done that day.

“I have a mean poker face. There’s a lot about me you don’t know and I want you to…to know me that is. To know what’s on my mind…and what’s in my heart. It’s you. That day at the restaurant and later that night, there was so much I wanted to say, like how sorry I am for being such an idiot, a senseless idiot who couldn’t get over himself long enough to see what was in front of him all along.”

“Nick…”

“No. I need to get this off my chest; I have waited too long as it is. Remember that day you’d been arrested and I came to see you?”

“How could I forget, I was terrible!” she said glumly as she broke free from his arms and turned from him. Nick watched as she placed Kelly down in his crib. “Sheesh, what have you been feeding him? He weighs a tone,” she stretching her arms.

Adalind took a weary seat at the foot of the bed. The woman was completely alluring, no matter what she did or even how she looked. Nick couldn’t stop himself from watching her, mesmerised by her every move. In the past, she shyly hid behind her long lashes whenever she caught him looking her way. He made a silent prayer for her to look up and see how enraptured he was with her but Adalind had closed her eyes from the world, shutting everything out.

He watched her quietly despising how distant she seemed to him, especially when he thought they had made inroads towards something they both wanted before Germany. He wondered if something happened whilst away. A cold sweat trickled down his spine as a thought cross his mind. _Worse, did she no longer feel the same for him?_

Nick took his place beside on her the bed, “Adalind, do you remember what you said to me that day in jail?”

“I said a lot of things, many of which were horrible.”

“Not _those_ things. You said something that I thought I had forgotten over the years but I did not. You said we could be fun together and you were right.”

“Actually, I said, ‘…under different circumstances, I think you and I could have really had some fun,’ and you called me a witch and you were correct in that assessment.”

This conversation was not going the way Nick had hoped. He wasn’t bringing up the past to make her feel horrible about herself, but he wanted to draw something positive from their shared experience. _Try harder,_ he thought bluntly.

“No, you saw something that I couldn’t see at the time, the truth between us. Maybe it’s been there since the beginning, that day in the sunshine where we saw each other for the first time and I mean _really_ saw each other. With everything that’s happened, maybe fate had a lot to do with all of it.”

“Nick, what are you talking about, you’re not making any sense and fate, really? I didn’t peg you as one of _those,_ ” she said dryly.

“Just…humour me for a second. I have had a lot of time to think about us and maybe fate is a bit of a stretch but then again who knows. You and I have had this song and dance going between us from the very start. Yes, it wasn’t pretty but it wasn’t all ugly either.”

“Clearly we remember things differently,” she quipped.

“The first day we laid eyes on each other, I was with Hank and I remember a beautiful, sexy lawyer caught my attention.”

She actually snickered at his description.

“Oh you don’t believe me, do you? Ask Hank, he’ll tell you. And I do not doubt in my mind that you thought the same about me.” He said, puffing his chest for extra emphasis, which actually made her laugh out loud.

_Yes, finally._

“Yeah…beautiful and sexy, that’s you, Nicholas Burkhardt!”

“What can I say, we made an impression. Anyway, remember the Mellifer.”

“It’s hard to forget the person trying to kill you.”

“What else?”

“Nick, what’s with the twenty questions? I am a Hexenbiest and you’re a Grimm and the truth is right there in those books about our kind. We’ve lived it, every horrible we could ever do to each other.”

“Well, not everything. I recall you pushing my buttons and I had goaded you to woge and—”

“You smiled at me….” She said.

“I did and in that moment, neither of us was afraid of the other or wanted to kill the other.”

“Are you sure about that?” she said with a knowing gleam in her eyes.

“You had your shot and you didn’t take it.”

“Not with Hank in the other room.”

“That’s a weak excuse and you know it. You said it yourself, you’re a Hexenbiest and I am a Grimm but none of that registered, something else was at play. I got into trouble once when I was young, before I lost my parents. The school Principal had called my mom. You see, I had pulled this girl’s pigtails in the playground; Sally Granger and she turned around and punched me in the face, giving me a black eye for a week.”

“What?” her continued laughter filled the air around him, a beautiful sound to his very keen ears.

“That night, instead of scolding me, my mom told my dad, who then sat me down and gave me the worst punishment you could give a ten year old, a speech about the birds and the bees. Sally Granger was my first girlfriend.”

Adalind cackled and after about a minute, she stopped and gave Nick a suspicious and quizzical look. “Wait, what does ten year-old you have anything to do with us in that hotel room? You’re not saying—” 

“That unbeknownst to either of us, I had proverbially pulled your pigtails that day.”

“That’s a stretch.”

She didn’t believe him.

“That’s the thing; I don’t believe it is a stretch.

“Next, you’re going to tell me you didn’t love Juliette the whole time we battled it out all over Portland?” she said sarcastically.

“Of course not, that would be a lie and you’d see right through it.

I have played that day a million times in my mind, plus a million others after that, like when I shot the Queen Mellifer.”

“You were doing your job.”

“I didn’t tell Juliette about you, at least not yet.”

“You were protecting her.”

“That night in the Bremen Ruins, I kissed you.”

“That wasn’t a kiss.” She said, catching his off-guard.

For years, he’d kept that little secret to himself, unable to make heads or tails of his choice of action in saving Hank’s life. He’d chalked it up to adrenaline, a heat of the moment kind of thing, where he hadn’t given too much thought to it. Rosalee had given him a tiny syringe he had to wait until the final moments to draw fresh blood before plunging it into Adalind. If that couldn’t work, he had a pocket knife he could have used to tear the flesh of his skin and let just let his blood coming in contact with Adalind’s during their very bloody fight, but no, Nick kissed the woman he’d claimed to hate with every fibre of his being.

He never told his friends how he’d broken the spell, let alone Juliette that he’d kissed another woman that wasn’t his girlfriend. Adalind may not have realised it then but that night had changed so much between them, at the very least how viewed her. He could still remember how her hurt and vulnerable state tugged at his heart when she declared tearfully how he’d killed her. Unsuccessfully, Nick had tried to harden his heart against the clash of emotions welling up inside him; _this was Adalind Schade the women who had tried to destroy him through the people closest to him,_ he’d thought. He wasn’t supposed to feel anything for her but contempt and loathing, yet he did. Strangely, Nick had forgotten they were age-old enemies, before that night, he could not remember a time when he’d caused as much pain to someone as he did to Adalind and to his shame, it would be his last.

He looked at the crib where their son slept,

“It still happened and two years later, he we all are.” He said.

“I am sorry about that,” she said.

“I know you are and I am sorry too. The truth is that we both made mistakes but they have led us to this moment, like what I did to you with Diana. I will never forgive myself for that. I know what it was like when I lost my parents and I know how hard it was for my mom living all those years knowing she could not be with me and I’m ashamed for my part in taking Diana away from you.”

“You know I don’t blame you for that.”

“Well, I do.”

“Honestly, it’s not like I had a ringing endorsement that I would do good with Diana. My life was so chaotic back then, I had made enemies everywhere I went, there was no way I could offer Diana a good life, not with the Royals chasing us down.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I was wrong and you’ve lost your daughter, maybe forever, because of me.”

Adalind twitched at the word, _forever_ , which served to deepen Nick’s regret.

“I’m also sorry for letting you bear the brunt of our past here in this place, to the point that you were afraid of me, afraid of being yourself with me. It wasn’t fair of me. I should have shown you more understanding so when your powers returned we’d deal with it together but instead I made you feel like you were the bad guy, the villain in our story, when I also played the part in your story.”

“So what are you trying to say?”

“Something I should have told you ages ago but I was too slow to catch on what my heart already knew. We are two halves of a whole, you and me. You’ve been a part of every significant thing to happen in my life apart from my parents, good and bad. I cannot look forward and see my life without you in it and I don’t want to try because I love you Adalind Schade. I just hope that I’m not too late.”

*/*/*


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes at the end of chapter so as not to sway people’s opinion of this chapter.

_I love you…I hope it’s not too late…._

The air around her became a whirlwind.

Did Nicholas Burkhardt just say those words, to _her_ of all people? Firstly, she never expected to fall in love with a Grimm and truth be told, she never expected that same Grimm, one she’d hurt over the years to reciprocate those feelings. She couldn’t believe her ears. Yes, she waited months for those words and now she was at a loss as to how to react, now that he’d said them.

Had her impossible dream become a reality? Or perhaps she’d imagined it because it was all simply too good to be true….

“Say that again.”

“I love you and I—”

“Not that last bit, only the first part,” she corrected him.

He flashed his million-dollar smile and Adalind positively melted under its guileless glow, _goodness the man was just so beautiful to behold._

“I love you.” He repeated.

“Again…I think I may be a little deaf on this ear, try the other side….” She said but her face was all aglow, gleaming, even in the dim light of their former bedroom.

Instead, Nick knelt before her, taking both her hands to his lips, kissing them with each syllable, “I-LOVE-YOU.” He breathed with emphasis.

She knew she was milking it but those three little words in her ear was like drinking a glass of water after traversing the vast wilderness for what had felt like an eternity with no relief. It was either that or break into happy tears, and she didn’t do _that_ , at least not willingly.

“I love you Adalind Schade and it was past due I said it because…” he said as he tilted up her chin so their eyes were level, on his knees and he still managed to tower over her. Adalind trembled under his touch.

“I thought I knew what absolute happiness was before you but the truth is I didn’t, not until we moved into this loft together, here in these barren walls. At first, I was like ‘…impossible! (that) it couldn’t be,’ but you surprised me and in the best kind of way.”

Her chest swelled with emotions as her eyes began to sting and her vision blurred from tears she couldn’t blink away despite her concerted efforts.

“You are everything I didn’t know I wanted…and needed until you stood in front of me and told me you loved me. I had held my breath that night, listening to you pour out your heart to me. I didn’t know it until I heard those three little words, like I had been waiting to hear them all along but was afraid at the same time. You deserved to hear those words from me, it was crass of me to leave you hanging like that.”

Nick kissed each one of her tears away, all the while whispering to her, “trust me…believe me” as if he knew how fantastical she found the whole scene playing out before her to be.

Trust was never her strong suit. She may have said something to him about this very, she couldn’t remember precisely. Most of her life had been marred with great disappointment that had shaped the trajectory of her life, that lead to men like Renard and his ilk, men too quick to use her body or her abilities, sometimes both without blinking or a thought to what she wanted.

_But not Nick, never Nick…._

The night they’d made love, she’d given herself completely to him because she wanted to, expecting nothing in return, it never dawned her he would ever use her. She knew he wasn’t the type.

It’s what had ultimately drawn her to him; His protective nature, kindness, the respect he showed her even under the strangest of circumstances, like weeks of sleeping by her side and not once crossing the line. Although, she’d caught him looking at her a several times which made her inside churn in a delicious sort of way, a new experience for her and once, she openly strut in front of him in nothing but his shirt over her undies, although she never saw his reaction, hoping he’d notice.

Unfortunately, shame quickly enveloped that moment as she hastily hid herself in the bathroom, scolding herself for daring to desire a Grimm in such a carnal manner. It’s what her Catherine would have been done had she been alive to witness it, no doubt her voice dripping with infinite disappointment.

Adalind never repeated her little stunt, at least not intentionally. 

Back to the present, “Not to sound like a Hallmark card and honestly I am not great at expressing myself so bear with me,” said Nick.

“Don’t worry; I won’t be beating down the door any time soon to try and stop you.” She gave him a sly smile, which only made her self-conscious so she stopped herself, in case he did actually stop.

“At this stage, not even a call from Hank or Wu would stop me from saying everything I need to say, what you need to hear.

“Ms Schade, I’ve only ever known reckless and unbridled joy during our short time together. I can’t explain it but it’s the truth; It sort of caught me by surprise how deeply I felt, regretfully taking me three months too long to figure it all out, and I’m sorry about that.

“You brought up Juliette earlier and I’m not going to lie and feed you something that is false, that I never loved her, or that we were never happy. For a time, we were but when I got my Grimm sight, something deep between us shifted. A fault line appeared suddenly that we couldn’t repair and the pressure from underlying issues from years of sweeping them finally caught up to us and everything just blew…well, you know.”

She did and to a degree, she felt terrible about it, for how much it hurt Nick, but a selfish part of her was glad too, because what was Juliette’s loss was her gain and no amount of guilt was ever going to make her wish differently. 

“We tried, holding on to everything but that proved much more destructive than I imagined or even expected. My aunt had warned me once against remaining with Juliette at the beginning.”

“I shudder to think what she would have thought of me,” She grimaced

“Don’t be too quick to judge, my aunt had a relationship with a wesen, Farley Kolt. He was a Steinadler and her fiancé.”

“Shut the front door!”

This made him chuckle.

She loved making him laugh. The first time it happened, it had affected her more than she’d expected, quickly after, she obsessed with finding things to make him laugh out loud.

“Anyway, Aunt Marie was right but stubbornly, I ignored her words. I thought I knew better and that we’d weather whatever storm came our way, and before you chime in with your _mea culpa,_ hear me out now, once and for all. The problems between Juliette and me were not all your fault. You are not to blame for every horrible decision I made, for which I suffered consequences.” He said, almost as though reading minds was yet another Grimm ability, so Adalind kept her peace.

“Things between us were like mixing oil with water or rather, dosing a house on fire with kerosene but we didn’t see it until it was too late. You mentioned being a Hexenbiest and me being a Grimm and implied how our ancestors’ history somehow dictated how things should be between us, but why shouldn’t we choose for ourselves what makes us happy? There’s never been anything like you and me together and I am tired of fighting it because it goes against history, our own as much as those that came before us.

“We made a baby together you and me. Our beautiful son and who says what we have…can have together can’t be as just beautiful and good? Being with you has brought me a peace I’ve never felt in years, contentment in a way I have never known it but also the worst kind of agony any man can experience when you left me.”

The last portion of his statement made her wince, like a dark, foreboding cloud had settled once again in her heart.

“It wasn’t any easier for me either, leaving this place, leaving you. I didn’t want but I was afraid, Nick afraid of being in love by myself. Nick, apart from my children, you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I don’t think you will ever know how much you mean to me. I don’t deserve you. In a million years, I still wouldn’t deserve you. This _thing_ inside me, it’s like playing a six-gun game of Russian roulette, forget six barrels. There’s greater chance of me destroying everything around me, it’s in my nature and the very last thing I ever want is to hurt you again, I did that plenty of times before and it guts me just thinking about it. I couldn’t forgive myself if I did somethi—oh—”

Before she could finish she felt his lips press firmly against her own and every thought she had, or ever had fled her once. She sighed as her lips parted to let him in, _YES…and more, want…need more!_

By the time they pulled apart, they were both frenzied, gasping for air and somehow ended up entangled on the bed, Nick’s weight solid over her tiny body. Adalind could feel it aching already, coming alive just for him after three very long months with no relief and from the way his chest heaved, heavy and expectant, it tickled her some to see her effect on _her_ Grimm.

“Adalind…” he groaned softly against her skin, calling out her name over and over, causing the small, rekindled embers deep inside her to fan into a roaring fiery flame. 

_A Grimm!_ Unexpectedly, she heard her mother’s reproachful voice ringing in her head, the last person she wanted intruding on that moment, but she quickly shoved it down, refusing to let her mother rob her one good thing in her life. _Why concern herself about what her mother would have thought of her love for Nick when she never cared about her own daughter in the first place?_

Adalind drew her focus back to the man in front of her, Catherine Schade already a forgotten memory.

“What is it?” asked Nick suddenly concerned.

“It’s nothing, not any more. Kiss me Nick,” she said’

He obliged, to the point of leaving her delirious with intense want.

“Woman, you drive me crazy, I can’t get enough of you.” He said, mirroring her thoughts.

“Love me Nick, make love to me, right here, right now,” commanded Adalind, enraptured by this man. “I love you so much!”

He groaned deeply when the lips met once more fervency, Adalind, pulling him down towards her.

“I love you too…too, too much Ms Schade, please…don’t…don’t ever leave me again….” He shook with feverish feeling as Adalind’s fingers fumbled with his belt buckle, “I’m not going anywhere,” she said with equal heat.

Impatiently, he gently brushed her hands aside, which made her giggled like a school girl but she was as hungry for him as he was for her.

Nick and Adalind sealed their union with a passionate and loving kiss.

*/*/*

After their third, languid round, Adalind became convinced she’d never be able to walk again, with how thoroughly Nick loved her.

“That was…”

“Spectacular…breath-taking…out of this world…” he finished off her sentence with a satisfied grin across his face. “Well Ms Schade I didn’t know you could do _that_ with your tongue and everything else. It’s criminal! I should have you arrested.”

“…On what charge?” she said indignantly, feigning offence.

“…Disorderly conduct for disturbing the peace, exhibiting reckless behaviour in front of our minor.” He teased her.

“Argh, how dare you? I would have you know I was as quiet as a church mouse.”

“As the material witness in this case, I beg to differ or should I say, _you_ begged to differ, I seem to recall you cry out my name a several times between our—”

“Nick!” she yelped, so mortified she hid her heated face in his chest.

“Shhh, you really don’t want to disturb the peace, we don’t want our son to know just much his Mama and Dada love each other.” He laughed but less at her expense as he wrapped his strong arms around her naked body to ward off the cold snap attracted by the rigorous activities.

“You started it,” she whined.

“And I certainly know how to finish it,” he said smugly, to which Adalind couldn’t dispute. “I’m sorry,” he said, a little more serious.

“No you’re not.”

“No I’m not,” he brazenly admitted and kissed her, devouring her lips.

They kissed for what seemed like forever, drinking each other in and almost afraid to let the other go…making up for lost time.

After, Adalind looked at the time, 2:37AM. “It’s late.”

“Technically, it’s early, there’s still time.” He lightly played his fingers over her scarred tummy.

“Seriously?” she gasped when his hand slipped between their bodies making her squirm as heat ruched over every part of her flesh. “Aren’t…you…tire, I mean t-tired…”

“Tell me to stop.” He challenged her. 

“No…yesssss…I mean no….” She was putty in his hands and no, she definitely didn’t want him to stop.

“It’s obvious you’re not tired but then again, I actually had something else in mind for you….” he said before diving head first under the bed sheet to her flaming core.

“Ooohh Nick, YES!” She cried out.

*/*/*

The late morning sun broke through the steel-framed windows but Adalind refused to open her eyes, not wanting to wake from the soft bed. Then a waft of bacon and French toast snapped her out of her lethargic state and she remembered she’d spent the night at Nick’s loft, a night of love and passion, her cheeks grew warm at the memory. 

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty,” Nick entered the bedroom with a tray between his and red rose between his teeth.

 _What cheesy, romantic Hallmark movie was this? It was as if she’d entered the twilight zone,_ she thought but deep down she loved it. No one had ever brought her breakfast in bed, let alone spouting a rose between his teeth with nothing but a towel on.

“You do know Sleeping Beauty was originally a blood sucker preying on young, unsuspecting village boys who wanted to play the gallant hero and rescue her from an alleged sleeping curse but it was a ruse to lure them into her trap to feed off their blood to prolong her life?”

“I did not know that,” he said with awkward surprise. He laid the tray on the bed beside her.

“Sorry…sometimes I just say the first thing that comes to my mind and now I have ruined the moment.”

“Never, but no more talk of weird deadly folklore tales over breakfast, not unless it involves this.” He walked over to the open wooden chest and lifted a heavy looking, age-stained book with a massive “G” for Grimm plastered on the front cover for her to see.”

The book!

In the drama and excitement of the night before, she’d forgotten all about the book.

“Is he in it?” She meant Kelly.

Now that she had it in front of her, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to know. _Bonaparte had gotten into such a frenzy, was it possible she over reacted?_

“See for yourself,” he handed her the book.

With reverence and shaky hands, Adalind began to page through the book, skipping through the first three quarters of the page to the very last few documented. There were hundreds of names but she was looking for one in particular. She found it, “Kessler.” She came across Walter Kessler, the name of Nick’s maternal grandfather and at the end of his line, was Kelly Burkhardt, born to a Nicholas Burkhardt on 10/30/15.

“So doesn’t mean he’s…”

“A Grimm? Maybe. My uncle George, he never got the sight and he’s name is not there.”

“I guess that answers it.” She said with little emotion.

“Are you okay with that?” he asked, suddenly. “We never really talked about it, I mean seriously that is. It’s okay, to not be okay about it, you know you can tell me. I know these past few months weren’t exactly what you’d hoped because I screwed up so royally, making you feel like you were lesser somehow, that I could never love you because you are a Hexenbiest. I need you to know that it would not have matter to me one bit if his name wasn’t in that book and he was half-Zauberbiest. All this time, I kept thinking, he is my son and I love him….” He said soberly.

“…And that is all that matters, not which side of his DNA lottery he falls under.”

“Exactly, he is a beautiful part of both of us, you and me together, that we managed to get right, against all odds.” 

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

*/*/*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is short and maybe sweet, It was supposed to be the latter half of the previous chapter but them I kind of got carried away with the length of that chapter so I made it into a new Chapter instead. I’m not 100% sure about some things in this chapter. I’m two ways about it, like it had to be said but then again maybe not because the show didn’t address it. Many of us write fanfiction as a means to “correct” some shows’ mistakes and I feel like the show kind of robbed us so much of Nick’s POV when it came to his feelings for Adalind and how he came to the place where he loved her and couldn’t pretend otherwise anymore. It took him all of two seasons to tell her finally and while I loved it, I wish we had that moment much earlier! I wanted to get inside his head and they didn’t let us, I’m filling in the blanks but sometimes it second guess myself and go, but no he wouldn’t (didn’t) say/do that. Ugh, such a conundrum! Please share your thoughts, don’t be shy (like show!Nick, lol).


	11. Chapter 11

He was staring again.

“What? Do I have something stuck on my teeth?” She asked self-consciously as she covered her mouth with her free hand.

“No, I just….” He paused.

He didn’t know how to say it, how he loved to watch her, drawn to her like a moth to a flame. Normally, he was stealth about it in the early days at the loft. He always made sure she never caught him doing it as she made breakfast or tended to their son in the mornings. It’s why mornings had become his favourite time of the day. After a harrowing night of fighting off wesen, the sweet calm of their mornings together had worked like a balm over him, not just emotionally but in other ways as well, arousing him to distraction.

Adalind in nothing more than his shirt, her long legs that reached skyward often had him hiding behind a locked bathroom door, trying to find relief. Not any more, now he could express just what he felt and act on it without hesitation.

“I’m just thinking of how beautiful you look and how much I want to kiss you right now.”

“Really, because I know I look a royal mess, my hair practically a bird’s nest.” She said, using her fingers to comb the knots out of her hair. A big mistake on her part as it had the opposite effect on him, reminding him of their last night together. What they did, her crying out his name in the throes of passion. He was getting aroused just thinking about it.

Nick smiled, leaned over her so their lips could brush lightly against one another before turning passionate. “I was also thinking how I can do this…and this…and this, instead of just thinking about it.” He had her squirming at his touch. “Believe me, I have thought about this so much it was driving me crazy not having you here, and now that you are, I’m never letting you go.” His hands began to roam freely over her naked flesh beneath his shirt.

“You know, you are gonna have to…eventually,” his tickling of her released a mirthful laugh.

“Never!” he growled into the crook of her neck as he ploughed her with his hungry kisses.

“Nick…work….”

“Sshhh, forget about that. I have.”

Unfortunately, for Nick, his son had other ideas. Kelly’s sudden crying doused the raging flame in his pants instantly. “Is it too soon to send him to boarding school?” he asked, unimpressed by the interruption.

“Nick!” Adalind lightly punched him on the shoulder for the quip.

“Just kidding…not…no, I am…okay just a little.” He said before leaving the bedroom to fetch his son in the living area.

“Buddy, you timing, it really could not be more awful.” He told his huffy son, who’d turned beet red from all his crying.

“What’s the matter?” Adalind asked as she joined him. Nick chided himself over his thought scrapping the gutter at the sight of her and forced his eyes to stay up top as she strode across the concrete floor towards him, barefoot. “I don’t know. He doesn’t appear to have hurt himself.” He said pensively.

Kelly immediately sought his mother’s arms the second he saw her. “I guess he wanted you.

“Oh, my baby, Mama’s here. Come to Mama.” She took him into her arms and rocked him back and forth until he quieted.

“I know how he feels and now I’m jealous of my own son.”

Adalind gave Nick an apologetic smile and a quick but consolatory kiss on his cheek. “Don’t worry; I have enough attention for both men in my life.”

*/*/*

“I’m surprised you haven’t gone back to work, wasn’t your suspension for a week or something along those lines?”

“Renard felt it needed to be longer but as of yesterday, I’m back full time.”

“So what’s today, shouldn’t you be at the Precinct?”

“I’m cashing in on my sick days so I can spend it with my family.”

Adalind turned a pretty shade of pink at the word _family._

“And he’s okay with that?” she said hastily.

“No, but I don’t care what he thinks.”

“I’m sure he’d love to hear that.” She said sarcastically. “I know I do. I’m really glad to have this time together, the three of us, I know it hasn’t been easy, not with everything that’s happening in in the city, I mean with all the beheadings.”

“Please, no talk of work, especially mine. It’s a beautiful day. Let’s enjoy it while we can.”

“Of course, whatever you say, Detective.” She teased him.

He tsked at her, basking in her sexy but playful manner, reserved only for him.

They were having a picnic for three under the gazebo he’d recently built on their roof, enjoying the summer sun away from public scrutiny.

After months of procrastination when Adalind still lived at the loft, Nick had finally created the garden for them to enjoy only for Adalind and Kelly to end up living half a world away. Despite the hopelessness he’d felt at times, something inside of him had hoped nonetheless. If Adalind had spent months turning this cold paint factory into a home, their “fome”, the least he could do was give them a garden, even if he told himself she’d never get to see it.

Now it was complete. Against all odds, he’d turned their roof space into garden for the day Kelly would grow and need space to run around and play and Adalind was there beaming at him while their son rolled about on the plush green turf.

He wasn’t a landscaper by any stretch of the imagination but he did his best to smooth out the rough edges with raised hedges and tall plants for some privacy for such a time as this, to enjoy with his family without thinking about his work as cop or a Grimm or Berman and Rautbort.

“It’s really beautiful out here. I don’t remember it looking like this the last time I was here with Kelly.”

“Let’s just say, I was highly motivated and I had a lot of time on my hands recently. It’s not finished, the plants aren’t fully grown yet.”  
“It’s still beautiful, like I had always imagined it would be. I’ve always wanted a garden.” She hesitated before continuing, “I mean I had one growing up but I never got to enjoy it. I know I bought my house specifically for that, for Kelly, even though I knew it was too expensive for me…after not working for so long but I wanted it for Kelly. I want to give him the life I never had, to grow up as normal as possible.”

And there it was a reality check. They’d talked about everything pertaining to their feelings and thoughts of never parting again but not the details of what that truly meant. Adalind was finally home but she still had a whole other house, a job in a company that made him uneasy.

“Is there anything truly normal about us?”

“Of course not but don’t you want better for him?”

“Every freaking day but I have realised that normal is overrated. I don’t want normal. I want what we have. We owe it to Kelly to live the best life possible and that means being honest with ourselves, that we are not normal and its okay more than okay.”

For so long he’d lived on tenterhooks with Juliette, hiding who he was because he was afraid of rejection, of the truth coming between them. His aunt had warned him against the chaos he brought into her life but that was not what had driven them apart. His mother had told him to embrace his life with Juliette instead but she too, couldn’t see the cracks beneath the surface that had ultimately destroyed them.

When Adalind took his abilities, Nick had been broken but to Juliette, she had viewed his Grimm as broken something that needed fixing, to which his “blindness” after Monroe and Rosalee’s wedding was the cure. Juliette hadn’t love the man he was but the man he’d ceased to be one sunny afternoon outside a coffee shop, a ring box jiggling in his pocket. No matter what Adalind had done to them in the past, Juliette’s feelings were always her own and to be rejected for who he was had cut Nick deeply.

He had tried to make it work, always swimming against the current because he hated losing yet another person his life. He’d already lost too many to count but it was too late, gone was the woman he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with, replaced instead by a vicious and vengeful Juliette, whose hatred for him only grew more fierce with each passing day.

It was the darkest period of his life but also the most hopeful. He’d lost his mother but gained a son and the turnaround hadn’t stopped there. Not soon after Juliette’s disappearance, within weeks of Kelly’s birth, Nick began to feel again. Adalind had snuck up on him, taking root in the deepest recesses of his heart, much to his surprise.

Though Juliette had taken so much from him at that stage, Nick still couldn’t escape the sense of betrayal he’d felt for what was happening between him and Adalind against Juliette’s memory and their time together. He’d fought and resisted those fledgling feelings for Adalind until he faced down an even bigger loss, losing the family he’d grow to love and cherish.

Had it not been for his friends who had greater insight to his own feelings and kicked him in the rear to go after what he wanted, Nick realised this separation from Adalind could have lasted longer and he would have lived a long and miserable life, unabated…shorter perhaps, if he poked enough Jägebars and lost the fight.

“Dude, you have to start living for yourself, no one would blame you if this is what you really want. And if someone has a problem with that, stuff ‘em! You do you.” Monroe had encouraged him only weeks ago.

Nick and Juliette had been together for years, had been through so much together yet he to discover his hands breaking into a cold sweat at the sight of Adalind turned his world upside down but how had it happened?

And now it was getting harder to see his life without the blonde Hexenbiest smack dab in the middle of it. She was in his thoughts, in his dreams, on his lips, in his heart and he wanted the world to know it.

While the secrecy of their situation had proved paramount at the time the royals had come after them, Nick realised he hated keeping what he felt for Adalind secret. There was no shame in what existed between them. Kelly was proof of that and while everyone in his life knew about the two of them, Adalind’s situation at work had grown much more precarious than before. He hated the idea of needing to dodge people like Bonaparte because she worked for the slimiest law firm in all of Portland.

It grated him to think he couldn’t waltz into that office and take her out to lunch, that he had to lie about who he was just to talk to her on the phone. That is not the life he wanted for either of them but he couldn’t very well tell to quit. It had dawned on him before her trip to Germany, the irony of his situation. For so long he’d grown so used to the women in his life worrying about whether or not he’d come home at night. Now he must trust that what they have is strong, that there’s nothing in the world to pull them apart ever again. Not their inherited abilities or her shady law firm, and certainly not faded old memories of a time long past. 

“What happened in Germany?” He finally asked, curious.

Adalind explained her errand for Berman. How he wanted her to oversee the signing of a contract for one of their clients who’d been in Stuttgart at the time. It was a project for one of her colleagues but with her being in Leipzig, Berman had wanted to “kill two birds with one stone” and save a few bucks while he was at it.

“I’m sorry I had you worried. I can assure you I had about as miserable a time over there as you did here. I know how much working in that place irks you.”

“It can’t be worse than having Sean Renard as your boss, especially of late.”

“ _Touché_.”

“I don’t know what happened but it seems we’re always butting heads, fighting for dominance.”

“That’s Royal Prince Sean Renard of the House of Kronenberg for you, he likes being on top, he loathes anyone that exerts any authority over him, let alone independence. I should know. He tolerated me as long as I was still useful and subservient to him.”

Talk of Renard suddenly made Nick uncomfortable, so he stuck to steadier ground.

“So, this Baledin guy, are you sure he stopped following you after you left Monroe’s uncle’s shop?”

“I never said I was followed.” She corrected him.

“Not in so many words but listening to you right now, I got the sense that is what you thought at the time, that you were being followed after you arrived in Leipzig. Did you get that same feeling even in Stuttgart?”

She took a moment before replying, “Honestly, I don’t think I was ever followed to begin with. I was just nervous about the meeting with Felix, which went as I expected, but it would have been nice to get a heads up about your plan with Trubel.”

“I am sorry about that but having another Grimm ace in my sleeve was just too impossible to ignore. I figured Bonaparte would stop digging when he found out a different Grimm got their hands on his prize, one whose connection to me remained unknown outside our small little circle. I’d do anything to make sure you and Kelly are safe.”

“Let’s hope it worked.” She said as she chewed on a rather sweet strawberry. “Anyway, everything felt fine once I landed in Stuttgart, whatever I felt in Leipzig didn’t follow me there, nor did it follow me here.” She lightly stroked his hand.

He wasn’t convinced but he dropped it, for her sake.

“Plus, I made a new friend something I haven’t done since before Rosalee, since before I was a child to be honest. He name is Vera Fischer, I’m sure I told you about her.”

“No, I’d remember, it’s not like we talked much a month ago.”

“Right, it must have been Rosalee that I told. I was having one of the crappy office days, I seem to have a lot of those these days, and I had taken Kelly to the park for a breather and that’s where we met and clicked. She reminded me of a different time, when I had so little to worry about.”

“Like me?” He said thoughtlessly.

“Yes, but now I would not change my life for anything in the world, not for power, prestige or money…nothing.” She kissed him and he kissed her back. “I love you Nick Burkhardt, I always will.”

“I love you too Adalind Schade.” He said which made her giggle like a schoolgirl.

“Say it again.”

“I love you.”

“…And again.” Her smile turned into a beaming, wide grin that warmed his chest.

“I love you.” He smiled back.

“I’m sorry I just love hearing you say that to me.”

He loved saying those words to her, “I will keep saying it, over and over because it is true. Nothing is ever going to change that.”

“I hated every second away from you two but it wasn’t as complete a nightmare as I imagined.”

“Because of your friend?”

“Sort of. You have to understand what it was like being me, before I met you. Every relationship I ever had was through the lenses of performing some sort of transaction. I had no actual friends to speak of, just rivals or people I could manipulate for further gain and forget being in love. I didn’t know the first thing about it other than that it was a big no-no according to my mother, because “it made us weak and easy to manipulate” her words. I guess that’s why Sean and I got along so swimmingly at the beginning. We were using each other.

Nick, it’s different with you. There’s no ulterior motive, no deception, no duplicity. It feels real, I can’t explain it except that I being with you…it saved me, you and this little guy here saved me and I will never be able to repay that.”

“Uhm…I…I….” he was at a loss for words. What could he say after that?

Embarrassed by her confession, Adalind busied herself by looking everywhere else but him. 

“Adalind, loving you has been the most thrilling and frightening thing I have ever done in my life because it was so easy to do. It is my honour to love you. I didn’t know it until it happened.” He lifted his hand to her chin and made her look into his eyes. “Have you ever been in a crowd and still felt alone? This was my life for the longest time. I did everything they taught me to do to stave off the loneliness, ticking off a checklist that was my life, like moving into a town and settling down after a lifetime of moving around the country with my aunt as she tried to raise and protect me from people I didn’t even know were after us.

“Or moving in with my girlfriend after dating for at least a whole year because why not, it’s what was expected or so I had heard.”

Adalind snorted, “Hon’, we moved in together because I had your baby and we didn’t even like each other at the time.”

“You’re missing my point—wait, did you just call me ‘Hon’?” his face broke into a boyish grin.

Adalind turned a very pretty shade of pink, “I didn’t—”

“No, no, there are no take backs here. I heard you and it is perfect…Hon’. I like it. Hon’….” He said, rolling the word around his tongue like he was test-driving a sports car he just bought wish cash.

And without missing a beat, he continued with what he was saying, “Love, I spent my whole life planning for my life to go a certain way, call it over compensating for the past. My school psychologist called it a defence mechanism, being in control so I wouldn’t feel the pain of losing something when I wasn’t in control. I bought a ring after the second year with Juliette because that’s what normal people did but I wasn’t normal, or passed as such.” He said

“A psychologist?” she said, visibly surprised, the embarrassment she felt over Nick calling her _Love_ washed over her so naturally like it was always meant to be.

“Yeah, I had to or rather, I was forced to after my parents died. My aunt wasn’t exactly equipped to deal with a young boy’s trauma. I found out years later that my mom hadn’t actually died, and that my aunt knew all along but that’s not the point either. After so much chaos growing up, I made a point to be in control of my life as much as I could. My job, my relationships but life seems to have other ideas.

“I became a Grimm, made friends with people who, by all accounts, were my enemies…fell in love with one of them. I didn’t plan for it. It just happened and I have never been happier in my life than I am right now. You make me come alive in a way that I have never known, not since before I was twelve years old when I thought my life was perfect. I know you have a certain view of things, of our lives…but know this, that with you by my side, I will never feel alone ever again.”

“Nick….” her eyes began to water.

“I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring for us but I am certain of one thing. I am yours and you are mine; now and always.”

He kissed her softly as she melted in his arms until he lay atop of her.

After a long while, breathless, he pulled away, but not enough to lose separate as tips of their noses kissed. He inhaled deeply, taking her in. When he opened his eyes and gazed deeply into her cerulean blue eyes peppered tiny flicks of grey, perfect in her imperfection just for him, he knew it instantly what he wanted and unlike another lifetime before, he knew the woman of his dreams wanted the same. He once heard it said, _[he] must be willing to let go of the life [he] planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for [him]._

No more planning his, but actually living it.

With love swelling in his chest, Nick finally spoke the words that had rung loudly in his heart since she returned from Germany, “Adalind Schade, will you marry me?” He exhaled, and before he could gauge her reaction, he heard the only answer to give him unspeakable joy.

“Yes,” she said, without hesitation.

*/*/*


	12. Chapter 12

Kelly had long since lost the battle against the afternoon’s sweltering heat leaving his parents alone on the roof under the dying ambers of the day. Adalind had tucked him in where it was cooler and easy to find some respite. While the sunset was beautiful to behold from the new garden, it didn’t take long for Adalind to find other ways for them to enjoy the private space. It wasn’t exactly the mile-high club but the intimacy between her and Nick more than out-classed the popular but quickie setting that often attracted couples.

“I wish we could stay like this…in our little bubble forever.” She couldn’t help but voice her thoughts as they lay with arms and legs entangled sweetly together, watching the first of the stars come out to shine. “I don’t want to go back,” referring to her house, her job and everything that posed a threat to her happiness.

“I don’t want you to go back either. I will say this about us…we don’t make anything easy….”

“No, no we don’t but it’s worth it,” said Adalind, a statement as well as a question all at once.

“It is, more than you will ever know,” said Nick definitively. “You belong here.”

She wasn’t sure if he meant his arms or the loft. Perhaps he meant both, the thought made her tingle in that familiar and expectant way that often saw her jump in head first into the unknown. In the past, she always ended up burnt but with Nick, she’d found refuge, stability…love. She was more than happy to take the plunge. They were moving too fast by anyone’s standards, Adalind was floating high on a cloud to let a thing like common sense bring her down to earth.

True to form, they did things their own way, not following the rules. There was nothing traditional about them and it worked for them.

Honestly, she never once believed this day would ever come. She felt a strange but thrilling urge to stand over the edge of the roof and shout at the top of her lungs that she had defied the stars and won, forgetting that she was still half-naked, most of their clothing scattered about as they enjoyed the heat and each other.

On that roof, Adalind basked in unbridled joy, letting it wash over her with nary a thought that it could be a mirage or that someone would come and snatch it from her arms just as she was about to enjoy it. It was unchartered territory for Adalind and she loved every minute of it.

Catherine hadn’t raised her to be so carefree with her emotions, especially good and happy ones, citing them as either useless or dangerous. For Hexenbiests, true happiness was never their portion in life. They either chased the unattainable or grew too jaded to want better for themselves, and if by some chance they did want better, they were too far-gone down the wrong path to turn back, A life compounded by a very healthy dose of self-centredness from which it was often impossible to escape.

…Yet Adalind did.

She broke free of those shackles, perhaps loving someone other than herself…above herself was the stronger force needed to set her free from the chains wrought over her life by the Hexenbiest. Her children and Nick were her miracle, a chance to live again.

Her thoughts meandered back to her daughter. It was impossible to imagine a good life when she still had no clue to the whereabouts of Diana. She felt the acute stab through her heart where her daughter was. This pain of losing her precious baby, she realised, would never subside, nor did she wish it to. It was a part of her story now, something inescapable, like her feelings for Nick or her encompassing love for her son.

“What’s wrong?” asked Nick suddenly, as if he’d read her mind and gleaned her thoughts from the ether. “Tell me what you’re thinking?”

“…Nothing.” She said.

“…Liar.” He smiled down at her.

“Alright, you caught me. You always do.” She returned his smile, lifted her face and kissed his lips before resting, again, her head over his slow beating heart to listen to the soothing rhythmic thumping.

“So you’re not going to tell me?”

“It’s nothing really, nothing that you didn’t know already. I still can’t believe we’re here…like this…together after everything. I used to think I was cursed, why things never worked out for me and now here I am, in love with a wonderful man, deliriously happy…. I didn’t think it was possible.”

“Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?”

“Not exactly….”

He gave her a pointed look.

“Maybe, I don’t know. How can two people who’ve hurt each other the most be so….”

“…Crazy in love?”

“…After everything?”

“Do you trust me?” He said.

“I do.” She replied without guile. The words flowed effortlessly from her chest because it was the truth. She trusted Nick, more than anyone she knew. Probably more than she trusted herself.

“We’re going to make this work.” He said emphatically, as if his words had the power to the river. They were swimming against the current, defying the course of nature itself.

“…Because there’s never been anything like you and me before? There isn’t by the way or else I would have read about it.”

“No, because we choose to make it work.” He elaborated. 

“Still, the world has never seen anything like us before. Tomorrow I go back to work, back to pretending I don’t know you or even love you, who knows for how long that will be.”

Nick hugged her tightly against his chest. It felt so good.

“If I can’t leave my firm soon, we’re going to have to prepare for the day the world finds out and I don’t see it throwing confetti for us, a Grimm and a Hexenbiest….”

“We’ll deal with it…together. We’re a team now, you and me. As long as that never changes, there’s nothing this world can throw at us that we cannot beat together.”

“It’s that simple?”

“…Pretty much.”

“I love your confidence.”

“You love me,” he said with a cocky smile dancing across his lips.

She knew that smile so well. It made her toes curl, though it hadn’t always been that way. What used to infuriate her now leaves her panting for more.

They held on to one another longer for what seemed like an eternity, until Nick spoke rousing her from the beginnings of a deep sleep. “Addie, are you still awake?”

“Mm-hmm.” She said non-committal.

“There’s something thing I need to tell you.”

“Hmmm.”

“It’s important…it’s about what Monroe and I found in the Black Forest….”

*/*/*

“How does it feel to be an engaged woman?” Rosalee squeed. The Fuchsbau was unable to contain herself, once they sat down for tea at the Spice Shop the following day.

“How did you…? I don’t even have a ring.”

“You should know by now that Nick and Monroe are like a pair of school girls, nothing ever stays secret with those two.”

“Right” Adalind said between her tea sipping.

“You see, Monroe is obligated by our marriage contract to tell me everything, that’s how I know. You’ll soon understand.”

She already did, after her talk with Nick the previous night.

“So how does it feel?” Rosalee repeated her pointed question, desperate for the details. While Adalind was eager to share the news with her friend, she wasn’t that eager to share those “details” as she put it. _That_ would remain firmly between her and Nick.

“We finally talked.”

“Yesss….”

“He told me how he felt….”

“And….”

“…And I told him how I felt….”

“I already know all of that, give me the good stuff!”

A light blush covered Adalind’s face.

Rosalee squealed even more. _It was oddly uncharacteristic of her friend to be thus animated,_ thought Adalind.

“He wanted to get me a ring, but I told him no.”

“That’s so…progressive of you.”

“Old me would have a royal fit at the thought of anything less than am 18 carat diamond but the old has assed so to speak.” She mused.

Rosalee wasn’t so convinced. “Do you actually want one?” She asked.

Adalind hesitated.

_How did she voice her desires without coming off as shallow and materialistic? Yes, she wanted to wear Nick’s ring, it was a symbol of their love, a promise to “forever” and felt no shame in wanting to whole world to know, but…_

“I couldn’t exactly walk around the office with a rock on my finger and not explain where it came from, why no one has ever heard of my sudden fiancé.”

“Where do they think Kelly came from, a muster of stork flew by before dropping into your lap?”

“Funny but nothing quite so interesting, I know the latest water cooler talk is that his father is Kehrseite and married.” There were other unflattering things spoken but Adalind didn’t feel like sharing that either.

“Doesn’t that aggravate you, being talked about like that? I know I would rip someone’s head off for talking about my son like that.”

“Honestly it’s better that than the truth, not after what we did in Germany.”

“Oh, that! I’d actually forgotten that whole thing.”

“I wish could do the same but it’s hard when Bonaparte could just as easily make a comeback in my life so long as I keep working in that office. Speaking of Germany, Nick told me about the Stick. He showed it to me.”

“Oh…that also,” said Rosalee grimaced, embarrassed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Things between us at that time were rather…unsettled, I totally understand. It looks so regular and benign but I could sense its power.”

“I’m glad he told you. You’re engaged now, practically married, it makes sense to begin this new chapter of your lives with no more secrets, especially about a magical stick with healing powers that only Nick can touch without hurting him.”

“That’s weird but also expected considering it was _the_ Grimm treasure from the Crusades that many have died to protect and keep hidden from the Royals. I wouldn’t have trusted me either with something so big.”

“Adalind….”

“No Rosalee, let’s call a spade a spade here, I cannot blame Nick for keeping this from me, I would have done the same thing if I were in his shoes.”

“…But things are different now, right?”

“I’d cut off my own arm before I betray Nick ever again. Let’s hope this feeling lasts….”

“Tsk!” Rosalee brushed off Adalind’s end statement. “So do you know what kind of wedding you want, big? Small and intimate?”

Adalind blanched, she hadn’t given much thought past being with Nick for the rest of her life, and how they go about making it happen hadn’t crossed her mind at all.

Firstly, she could count on two fingers the number of people she could call friends and her mother, who’d disapprove this union vehemently was dead, everyone else was an acquaintance at best, an enemy at worst. Sean was a no-no, altogether. Adalind didn’t need a reminder of the person she used to be as she walked down the aisle to marry the love of her life.

Although Adalind had remained awkward throughout the wedding “girl talk”, it belied her excitement.

As someone who’d never had any type of aspirations for true and genuine love, she also had no real girlfriends with whom to make such plans. It made her love Rosalee even more than she already did. Her heart was so full she actually thought it would burst just thinking about it. It was only a few years back when it was empty and shrivelled up like a used candy wrap and now she had all of these people in her life, people she loved and actually loved her back. She honestly didn’t know what to make of it.

The ringing of a bell alerted them to a customer that cut their conversation short. Rosalee excused herself to attend to business. Adalind used the opportunity to get her heart rate back to normal. Her skin was burning hot from all the contained excitement.

Of late, she wasn’t acting anything like her regular self and she struggled to hide the change. It wasn’t like before, when it felt like treading on eggshells because she was afraid of disappointing everyone. This time around, she felt her old confidence return but with none of the bite. Nick knew what she was and loved her in spite of that.

The sound of a familiar laugh emanating from the front of the store made Adalind turn and to her surprise, Vera Fischer was the customer who’d come into the store.

“Adalind, fancy seeing you here,” said the lanky and svelte woman. She was dressed in an asymmetrical, off the shoulder grey dress with a bulky belt to match her hand back and pumps. Her thick black hair tied rightly onto a sever ponytail with not a single strand out of place.

“Hi Vera, nice to see you again.”

“Oh so you two know each other?” Rosalee asked as she packaged some items into a brown bag.

“It’s a recent acquaintance, but one I rather enjoy,” replied the other woman.

“Yes, we keep running into each other,” said Adalind.

“…Like the stars are trying to tell us something,” Vera gave a playful wink. “I’ll be staying in town for a little longer than expected.”

“Maybe it’s the Portland air. It has that effect on people.” 

“The project I have been nursing for the last few months is beginning to take shape. I wasn’t sure at first but I’m seeing a good return. It would seem too prudent to pull back now, that and it’s nice being around family again.

“It’s always nice to have new folks around. It keeps things refreshing.”

“I was enjoying my stay and Portland does look this time of years. It would have been perfect except for those killings recently. I mean, how gruesome can you get?”

“It’s so terrible,” agreed Rosalee. “People are rightfully scared, this has never happened in this town before and I hate how it’s turned this community upside down.”

“My sister in law is freaking out. She owns a business next door to the place where they found one of the bodies. Her place has been shut up since more bodies started turning up. Actually, that’s why I came here today…to get a few things for Cindy to help calm her nerves a bit. Even if I wanted to leave Portland today, I certainly can’t do that now, not when my brother and niece need me.” 

“Oh Vera, I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Rosalee sympathetically. “Hols on…I might have something else that might help,” she walked round the counter to the shelves at the back of the shop.

“I’m certain the cops are doing everything they can to stop this guy,” added Adalind, wanting to defend Nick even though the other woman didn’t know him from a bar of soap.”

“Oh I remember you said something about Kelly’s father being a cop. That has to be a rough gig, with what he sees on the job daily. My brother’s wife just heard about what happened and she’s already a ball of nerves and my brother doing his best but he needs his little sister to help him hold the fort running all over town like I’m superwoman but enough about me. I feel like I’m holding down two jobs as it is. At this rate, I might drive myself to needing Rosalee’s miracle remedies just to get through the day.

Adalind just nodded.

“Where is your beautiful son, I don’t see him around.”

“Oh he’s over there, sleeping.” Adalind pointed to the nook in the wall, just to her right. “He’s had an exciting few days since I came back from Germany.”

“I can only imagine. I was actually surprised he wasn’t with you when we last saw each other.”

“His father took care of him while I was away on business. We share custody.”

“Is that all you share?”

Adalind flushed.

“Excuse me, forget I said anything, it’s just…you’re glowing. I figured there was a man involved and since you only ever talk about your son I assumed your ex was the only other guy in your life.”

Adalind shifted uncomfortably.

“Sorry; there I go, putting my foot back in it again. I really should mind my own business. It’s my job. It makes me curious about people. Sometimes I forget that my family and clients are the ones who can appreciate my little quirks I’m a complete stranger and there are boundaries. I should respect that.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” replied Adalind carefully. _This wasn’t the time to have one hackles up,_ she thought to herself, mindful of how she needed to be open to new relationships and purge herself of her mother’s self-destructive training to trust no one who couldn’t be a ring in her ladder to the top. “It’s not like you didn’t hit the mark,” she added self-consciously.

“I’m…happy…for you. I had someone like that myself, some time ago but it didn’t work out. I gave it everything I had but apparently, I wasn’t enough for him. I wasn’t perfect for him. He cheated on me with some blonde bimbo.”

_Well, this just turned awkward._

“I’m sorry…well from where I stand, it’s his loss.” Adalind said a beat too late.

“That’s what I say.”

Rosalee made her back, “Here it is. If your sister-in-law is having any trouble sleeping, let her drink this with her tea. It’s as effective as your over the counter stuff but without the harsh side effects.”

“This is why I love coming here. You’re a lifesaver, Rosie. How about I take you to lunch and thank you properly, Adalind can join us if she doesn’t mind.”

“I haven’t done anything yet. Give that to Cindy and tell me how she’s doing before you thank me.”

“Oh please everyone in this town knows your talents, or am I lying?” Vera turned to Adalind enquiringly.

“Rosalee is brilliant, I should know.” Adalind said nothing more.

“I guess I’ll see you gals later. Have a fabulous day.” Vera bid them goodbye as she made her exit.

“I should probably get going myself. Rosie.”

“Oh no, don’t call me that. My sister calls me that and I absolutely hate it.”

“I should get going.”

“Alright, but we’re not done talking.”

Adalind covered up her face with both hands hoping to escape the wedding subject. She was happy to talk about the rest of her life with Nick, just not that particular day.

“I know you two, if one’s not careful this wedding is going to fly by without much fanfare. You’ll end up in court standing before a justice of the peace with you wearing nothing but your dreary power suit while your Grimm is in a shirt and jeans with the forest mud desperately clinging to his work boots.

“Ugh, how did you know?” Adalind quipped, teasing Rosalee as she picked up Kelly from his temporary playpen.

*/*/*

A few days later, they did have that lunch as Vera had offered; meeting in the most posh side of Portland that brimmed with investment bankers, actuaries and a whole dictionary of financial wizards who may have well as poke a foreign language to Rosalee and Adalind, they couldn’t understand half of what was said around them.

It was a warm day, a little windy coupled with the changing of leaves now in effect, the advent of the fall season, so they sat outside, under the shade.

A waiter made his way to their table and turned to their companion, “Excuse me Ma’am, you are needed at the front desk,” he said.

“Sorry ladies, I’ll be back shortly.”

Vera followed the waiter but Adalind was too preoccupied to notice Rosalee staring at her. She had spent the past forty minutes avoiding Rosalee and her ambitious plans for her upcoming nuptials to Nick since arriving at the restaurant.

“It’s the perfect season to get married,” Rosalee had volunteered after Vera had excused herself to go to the ladies room. “You could have a garden wedding, with all the warm shades of Autumn…ooohh, how about the Portland Rose Garden. It’s the perfect setting?”

“It is beautiful but it doesn’t exactly scream ‘Nick and Adalind’.”

“If I could get either of you to say anything north of five word sentences straight, perhaps I could come up with something more to your taste. Monroe and I feel like we’re the ones getting married here. He’s already picked up his tux and has written his best man speech and I read it. It is moving.” Rosalee threw her hands in the air, exasperated and accidentally shoved one of the glasses crashing to the floor by her feet. 

“Oops.”Adalind smiled. She didn’t mean to.

Rosalee bent over to pick up the pieces

“That’s not necessary, I’m sure they’ll send some—”

“Ouch, just what I needed!” Rosalee hissed, in full woge after cutting her finger on one of the broken shards before said waiter quickly made his way with a broom and dustpan and swept up the broken pieces.

Instead of gloating and “I told you so,” Adalind rummaged through her bag for a plaster band to help stop the bleeding.

“Well shit!” Rosalee swore, to Adalind’s surprise.

“Rosa it can’t possibly be that deep, here wrap your finger with this….” said Adalind as she handed her friend the band-aid but Rosalee had turned her face to the side, avoiding making eye contact.

“What’s did I miss?” Vera asked as she returned to her seat.

“It’s nothing, just a little accident,’ said Adalind.

“Rosie, are you alright?” Asked Vera.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing serious but I…I just remembered something. Monroe is out of town for the day so I was supposed to pick up his supplies across town. He’s a bit finicky about these kinds of things. I was distracted and cut myself with the broken glass.”

A suspicious look crossed Vera’s features but it vanished just as quickly. “I know the feeling.” She said barely above a whisper.

Adalind gave Rosalee a quizzical look. She knew Monroe hadn’t left town. In fact, he was working from home that day, so Adalind wondered what had prompted the lie.

“Well, that is unfortunate. Adalind, you’re probably needed back at the office.”

“When am I never needed? I swear Berman wants to bury me under a pile of contracts as punishment for leaving the firm years ago,” she made a light joke but her mind was buzzing at the speed of light. Rosalee’s mood had done a whole 180 and Adalind wanted to know why.

“Maybe we can have dessert next time. The soufflé here is to die for,” Vera added before asking for the check.

They all exited the restaurant. Adalind waited until Vera had driven off before turning to Rosalee and asked her what had happened inside, why she had lied and barely said two words to Vera.

“How long have you known Vera?”

“Not long, I met her several weeks ago, why?”

“Did you know she was a Grimm?”

“A what now!?”

“…A Grimm. I saw her…in there. It was through a reflection after I cut my hand. She wasn’t looking directly at me so she didn’t see that I had woged.”

“Well shit!” cursed Adalind, mirroring Rosalee’s succinct statement from inside the restaurant. “What are the chances that she’s like Nick…friendly, I mean?”

Rosalee harrumphed, unconvinced of such a likelihood.

*/*/*


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I have been telling two (or more) stories at once, I may have fudged with the settings and timeline only a little bit….I’m trying very hard not to mess it up and keep track of everything, because there’s nothing that takes people out of the story than massive plot holes. I know I've had my fair share of complaining of plot holes and such. Enjoy, please share any and all comments, it's appreciated. 
> 
> P.S. I apologise for any typos and grammatical errors in following chapter, I have had time to proof read, I'm trying to write as much as I can between the (long breaks).

He looked over the forensic report for the hundredth time and it hadn’t changed since the first time he had read it. The blade used in decapitating all the victims was old, practically ancient. Initially, Nick had not wanted to listen to his Captain but something had bothered him about these murders. He’d never had an SK case before and _obviously that would unsettle any cop no matter how seasoned they were_. Thus, he did what any good cop would do and followed the lead, despite its original source just to prove Renard was wrong.

He put out a request to have the pieces of clippings that were found on the victims tested. He had to think outside of the box and his department wasn’t equipped for what he wanted. Granted he’d been inspired by a ‘80s movie that a dope soundtrack that oddly resembled his case - victims who’d been decapitated by an ancient metal weapon. However, this wasn’t _The Highlander_ , this was real life, and he needed to catch this killer sooner rather than later.

Nick called in a favour of a favour and came into contact with an archaeologist from PSU who knew a little something about what he termed, archeometallurgy, a big word for just the study of prehistoric use of metals by humans. Nick wasn’t interested in that. He just wanted to know the age of the metal clippings and their possible origin, if it were possible but in order to prove his hunch he needed a control test to help him determine the truth one way or another by providing a sample from his own weapons, passed down from his ancestors.

Nick didn’t understand half of what he read but he didn’t need to. The varying samples were 77.3% match in Fe isotopes from the late twelfth century Europe. The period was very close to the Fourth Crusade, it told Nick all he needed to know. The killer was in deed a Grimm, or someone passing themselves off as one. He’d already faced down one such individual only a few years ago, Ryan Smulson, a Lebensauger.

He did not like this revelation one bit, not out of any sense of offence for someone possibly pretending to be a Grimm…so much unnecessary killings and to what end? Granted, Sweet Robin had it coming but the other victims were relatively innocent bystanders caught in someone’s crosshairs and the body count had not stopped ticking, the latest of which they discovered in the Pearl District, only a handful of days after the last, evident of an escalation, the very last thing he needed right now.

Nick called the gang and told them to meet him at the Spice Shop, this case had just switched gears from being a police matter to being officially a Grimm matter, and he needed to deal with it very swiftly and decisively.

*/*/*

When he arrived at the shop, Rosalee opened the door for him and let him though and summarily locked it again, the “closed” sign dangled for emphasis.

“Is everyone here already?”

“No, Hank and Adalind haven’t arrived yet, Wu is already downstairs.”

“That’s fine, Hank already knows most of what I have to share and Adalind will catch up quickly.”

Nick hadn’t finished talking before they heard a knock on the door. It was Hank. They let him in and then made their way into the shop’s basement.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming. I’m sure you all know what been happening all over town these past few months.”

“Yeah there’s murdering psycho on the loose.” Monroe volunteered a little passionately. “And Dude, it’s affecting everyone, business is down and with people freaking out, I can’t make house calls, and Rosalee hardly sees any traffic these days. What the heck is going on?”

“That’s why I called you all here. I think we’re looking at a Grimm, I think they are the one responsible for all the killing,” said Nick stoically.

“A Grimm?” Rosalee said with very little surprise.

“Are you sure?” Wu and Hank spoke at once.

“What, another Grimm? Wait, isn’t that like encroaching on your territory, like isn’t it against the Grimm laws or something?” Monroe said confused.

“Honey, Grimm aren’t dogs, they don’t mark their territory.”

“Oh yeah, that’s technically our thing. But you’re the Portland Grimm, everybody knows that and that makes this place off limits.”

“Apparently not everyone knows that. This guy clearly doesn’t care.” Nick said sarcastically.

“Are you sure it’s a ‘he’?”

“Sweetheart, it’s an odd time to be claiming misogyny, don’t you think?”

“I’m not. Nick, I think I know who it is.” Rosalee added ominously.

“What? How? When did you even—”

“I met her a few weeks ago.” She said to her husband.

“And you’re only telling us this now?”

“I didn’t know she was a Grimm until only a few days ago. It’s not like people put up a sign or announce themselves whenever they meet new people.”

“Well they should, we did,” Monroe pointed to Nick.

“That was different.”

“Anyway, we were having lunch, the three of us—”

“Three?”

“I meant this individual, Adalind and I….”

“Adalind was there…with you with this Grimm?” Nick bolted upright at what he heard. Nick’s face creased with worry and tension. Unfortunately, for him, the shop’s ringing buzzer interrupted a flurry of questions he was preparing to fire her way.

Rosalee made a quick exit to open up for Adalind and now more questions piled on top of the others, reminiscent of a highway pile up as he stewed in his frustration waiting for the two woman to make their way downstairs.

_Who was this Grimm and why had Adalind not said anything to him?_

He was seething.

He and Adalind had finally accepted they were madly in love with one another. However, violence, deception, and chaos had paved the majority of that road to reconciliation. Long-standing history had shaped the animosity between Grimm and Hexenbiest so much so that Nick did not expect his kind to look too kindly towards Adalind’s species. He’d said it himself that there was nothing at all like him and Adalind, nothing like what they shared together. That sentiment wasn’t exactly shared the world over, except maybe Trubel.

His palms began to sweat extensively, itching towards the pistol lying dormant at his waist, a natural cop reaction when he sensed danger nearby. The thought of what could have happened if this Grimm was in deed his serial killer and had realised she’d dined with both a Hexenbiest and a Fuchsbau sent a chill went down his spine.

Nick began to pace, while the other two police officer stood silently by, uncertain what to say.

“Man I feel you,” said his friend. “I thought I knew everything there was to know about the wife and I just found out she’d been keeping this secret from me. It really bites! What were they thinking?”

“For the record, we weren’t keeping anything from you guys. We just didn’t have anything out of the ordinary to report…at the time.” It was Adalind speaking as they treaded down the steps to join them at the table where Nick’s evidence right strewn right across it.

“Not from where we’re standing, it isn’t.” said Monroe to Rosalee.

“Hello everyone,” Adalind said to the gang before turning to Nick with a quiet but loaded simple greeting, “Hi,” she smiled shyly at him.

Nick enveloped her into his arms, oblivious to the many pair of eyes staring at them. “Hello,” he said in return with equal fervour and then he gave his son a kiss on his head. “Hey Bud.”

“Ah-hem…” someone cleared their throat so they returned to the pressing matter that brought them all together and Nick remember that only a few moments ago he’d heard some disturbing news for which that he needed answers.

“You came into contact with a Grimm and said nothing, what if she’d hurt you, both of you,” said Nick, with more feeling than he intended.

“But nothing happened,” said Adalind

After about a minute, Hank cleared his throat.

“Right, now that we’re all here, let’s put all of the cards on the table and make sure your Grimm is…or isn’t our killer,” Wu spoke up.   
“Everyone knows about the murders but obviously not everything was released to the media, thus the public. When we realised we were looking at a serial killer, Renard tightened the noose fairly quickly to help reduce public panic.”

“Yeah, and it’s worked marvellously so far,” said Monroe sarcastically.

“He also wanted to keep the circle of cops who knew what was happening at a minimum to avoid many hands spoiling the broth.”

“That seems counterproductive. I thought this was the kind of thing you wanted all hands on deck, a way of assuaging public hysteria if you have the whole police force working 24/7 to catch this guy…I mean killer. We still don’t know if the killer really is a Grimm or that this lady friend of yours is _that_ killer.”

Hank turned to Nick and asked him what led him to his conclusion that a Grimm was involved.

“I can’t believe what I’m about to say but it was Renard who first brought it up the day you returned from Germany. I thought it was him being a prick as per usual but for days I couldn’t shake what he had said. Therefore, I went back to the beginning looking for something that I didn’t pay enough attention to. Though, every crime scene was different from one to the next, I knew there had to be something common throughout.”

“You think they all knew each other?”

“Unlikely. These people didn’t hang in the same social circles, let alone come from the same neighbourhood. That’s not the connection. We found traces of metal on all of the victims that tied them all together. I needed confirmation that the same blade was used.”

“That’s not possible. We are talking about a surgically sharp blade for one killing and a practical butter knife killing in another. I have gone over those crime scenes with you; they couldn’t have been committed by the same blade. Impossible”

“That’s what I said, I still needed to test this theory so I hacked a few trees in the woods with one of my axes and a sword and sent those samples together with what we recovered from the crimes scenes and victims’ bodies, and I got the results back this morning. It’s all there in the file…a fairly convincing match for old weaponry from central Europe around the time of the Fourth Crusade. And you all know where I got my axe and sword, same for many Grimms out there I imagine, unless we are dealing with another copycat…again.”

“That leaves you two, now spill.” Monroe turned to Rosalee, arms folded firmly across his chest.

“Well I met Vera—”

“Wait, Vera, as in your new friend, Vera Frank?” Nick cut Rosalee mid her speech.

“It’s Vera Fischer Sweetie,” Adalind corrected him unabashedly until she remembered present company and blushed. The term of endearment threw him off but only for a second.

“I met her about a month ago, here at the shop. She’s been a regular of mine pretty since. I think Adalind met her some time before that.”

The whole room turned its attention to the blond Hexenbiest, shining the spotlight on her, like she was in the interrogation room at the Precinct, an old past time of hers.

“Sheesh, so much pressure on a girl,” she joked but Nick wasn’t remotely amused.

Nick had stopped looking a rain cloud hung permanently over his head but he was still upset about the whole fiasco unfolding before him. He had practically shared many of the case details with her since they reconciled but this information hadn’t been forthcoming from her end. He quickly realised he had to check his anger, Adalind had no way of knowing the woman she’d grown friendly with, someone she was particularly thrilled to have met was a possible suspect for gruesome killings around the city. Now calmer, he slipped his hand below the table until it found hers and their fingers entwined.

“I met Vera at the park about two months ago during a lunch break. We bumped into each other randomly ever since. I can’t imagine her being this killer unless she’s a psychopath.”

“That’s what I have been saying since we got here.” Monroe cried out.

“That’s not comforting. This woman had been around our son, if she’s the killer….”

“When did she say she moved back into town?” Rosalee asked Adalind.

“She didn’t say actually. When was the first body discovered?”

“Some time before your supposed meeting at the park. I don’t like this. Without a concrete timeline of her movements we basically have nothing to pin on her.”

“Not exactly, remember our first and only witness for our first vic, Wally Simmons? He claimed he’d seen Jennifer O’Dair leaving the club with another woman. We have a composite sketch lying around her somewhere,” said Hank and he shuffled the files on the table, turning and flipping until he found what he sought. “Here,” he said satisfied and handed it to Nick who then gave it to Adalind.

“Is this Vera?” He asked attentively.

“I-I can’t tell, the nose is too wide and Vera’s eyes are maybe a tad rounder, like that actress Emma What’s-her-name. Rosa, what do you think?” she gave the sketch to Rosalee for confirmation.

“Maybe it’s her…maybe it isn’t. I’m sorry guys. It’s hard to tell with this.”

“So what, is this another dead end?” Asked Hank.

“Not yet. You have been sitting on this for a day tops, why?” Nick turned to Adalind. He knew there was more she hadn’t told them yet.

“Well like Rosalee said, we didn’t know Vera was a Grimm. Rosa saw her through a reflection on the mirror after cutting her finger with a piece of glass. Thankfully, Vera was too preoccupied at the front desk to notice her woge. After that we left the restaurant, Rosa made up some story about picking up Monroe supplies at West End.”

“What Restaurant was that?”

“The Merlot Expression in the Pearl,” replied Adalind.

“Dammit!” Exclaimed Nick.

“That’s the location of the last victim.”

“ _We_ hadn’t heard that.” Rosalee said, now visibly worried.

“It’s like Hank said, Renard has been very stingy with the outflow of information to the media.”

“But how would she have done that in such a public place?”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t have suspected anything even if you knew what to look for. This is the kicker about this latest victim; we found his head but not the body. The killer had wrapped the guy’s head in plastic wrap and shoved it in the freezer.”

“Ew!” Adalind’s face contorted in disgust. “I ate food stored together with a dead guy’s severed head. I’m never eating out again.”

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Rosalee said, she too disgusted by this new info.

“Much like the other vics, it’s hard to determine the exact time of death, let alone where the first crime scene where the murder took place.”

“So you think it was Vera that did it?”

Nick hesitated.

One of the things he learnt at the Academy was to follow the evidence where it lead him, not the other way around, lest he arrested and jailed the wrong man while the real culprit roamed out free to commit more acts of crime.

“No, it just means we keep digging.” He finally said to the room.

Adalind looked at Nick, “I guess that’s why we’re all here. Well after our fateful lunch, I went back to the office and dropped a few hints to the right ears about the presence of another Grimm. It’s the kind of thing B.R.&A. is interested in. They know about you and your reputation precedes you but they try to steer clear of poking the bear in case you come knocking at their door.”

“Funny, considering who their client base is,” said Nick, unimpressed as he remembered Bonaparte.

“Anyway, Rautbort wanted to know who this new Grimm was, if she was a threat.”

“And…?”

“Her name is really Vera Fischer but nothing else about her life holds up to scrutiny. She’d told us she had a brother named Clayton Fischer, married to a Cindy with a cute seven-year-old girl name Camille. Apparently, they don’t exist. There is a Carl Fisher and Clay Braamfischer among others but no one that actually fit her brother’s description. My office went through every record in the Portland system and it appears she made them all up, including the company she worked for.”

“So what, she’s like a ghost?” Hank said.

“No, a _Decapitare_ from the bad old days,” chimed Monroe, not liking this story the more he listened to it. “She’s here to do what Nick hasn’t done since ever, to terminate all known wesen with extreme prejudice. I don’t know about you guys but nick, I think you have your killer.”

 _The evidence was mounting,_ thought Nick wryly.

“Yeah but what’s her motive?”

“I thought being a murdering psycho Grimm was ‘motive’ enough, no offense man.” Monroe added the disclaimer sheepishly.

Nick didn’t take any. He was a cop and a Grimm, while both have done a lot of good for the general public, Nick was not so tone deaf as to ignore many of the atrocities committed by some of his comrades in arm, living or dead, who’d dedicated their lives to serve and protect, not just behind a badge. His Grimm books were brimming with the good as well as the bad, horrible mistakes committed in the name of doing good. 

“There has to be a reason why she’s doing this here and now. I am the Portland Grimm after all, that’s already a deterrent for the worst of the worst, so there was no need for her to settle here.”

“You don’t think the killings are random.”

“Not even. These people are connected somehow.”

“We already know they died is some kind of business establishment or outside of one and we’ve ruled out some things, what else is there? We know O’Dair was a graphic artist from Boston. Jaeger was a mechanic who frequented the woods. Fuchsbau Petunia Gerber, was the opioid addict and we’re still waiting for the ID of the last victim.”

“Can’t you use facial recognition in this case?” Adalind brought up the readily available software that could help Nick.

“Nope, it’s useless. After thawing out the head, everything kind went south if you catch my drift. We’ve had no hits.” He said.

“Hank you said each body was found in some kind of shop…?”

“Yeah….” Hank lined up the victims’ files in order of their murders, photos on top but from Adalind’s vantage point, they were upside down. She looked down from one to the next.

“Are they all wesen?” she asked but she already knew the answer to that, he’d told her enough times.

“No, O’Dair was Kehrseite.” Nick said.

“Oh gawd!” Adalind gasped with shock.

“What is it?” He asked her as he studied her shocked expression, his concern for her returning ten-fold.

“I think I know what the connection is.”

“What is it?”

“It’s you Nick. You are what connects all these people together.”

“I don’t even know them, have never seen them a day in my life.”

“That’s because you’re not thinking like the bad guy. Bad guys, especially smart calculating ones always have a reason for doing what they do, to send a message. In this case you are the recipient.” She laid a finger on the first folder “Dog hotel – veterinarian - Juliette…” and then on to the next “…antique shop – clockmaker - Monroe…drug store – spice shop - Rosalee…restaurant freezer – refrigerator repairman - Bud…. This is the message to you Nick. They are going after your friends, they want you to see it coming.”

“Oh my go—”

The shrill of his cell phone, ripped through the tension-filled basement causing Rosalee to jump with fright. He quickly pulled it out of his pocket, “It’s Renard.” He said before he answered the call.

“Captain…another body…dammit…yeah, he’s right here with me…on our way.” He hung up. “Hank, Wu…we got to go.”

“Oh Nick, this is…actually I have no words, someone is hunting us down, not us exactly but still…us?”

“What did Sean say?”

“Adalind, I need you and Kelly to stay with Monroe and Rosalee until I get back. In fact, the four of you go to the loft; it’s the most secure site right now.”

“What’s going on Nick, you said another body was found….”

“Yeah…”

“Well, tell us!”

“It’s a young woman found in one of the bathroom of the family court. Severed head like all the others but she’s all there, no missing half. The sheriff heard a baby’s cry and went in to investigate. They found him crying next to…his mother’s….” his voice trembled slightly, he couldn’t day the rest as his eyes landed on Adalind.

Adalind was right and Nick got the message loud and clear!

*/*/*


	14. Chapter 14

Vera consumed every thought of Adalind. She vacillated between Vera being the killer Nick hunted and someone that was coincidentally at the right place and time. _Had she been playing her and Rosalee all this time, a predator lying in wait for its prey?_ It had been a while since Adalind felt used and there was no worst feeling in the world than that, except the few times she was betrayed by those closest to her.

“I still can’t believe it.” Rosalee said.

Adalind could.

She’d done the same thing years earlier, making friends with people for the purpose of destroying them. It was her ammo, shamefully so, and now the shoe was firmly on the other foot and Adalind hated every minute of it. At any other time, she’d be up for the challenge, she missed getting a good scrap or two since having her children and it’s because of her children she’d towed the line. She had to think about them first.

The idea that they knew the identity of Portland’s serial killer was nothing more than an educated guess, stemming from years of being on the other side, conspiring against the very man she now loved whole-heartedly. It was something she wasn’t proud of anymore and unfortunately, something she just couldn’t sweep under the rug because she wished it. In a sense, she could see things in a way that the others could not. She only wished she’d seen through Vera sooner. She was only glad she’d not let that women sink her claws firmly into her life or who knew how things would turn.

Adalind thought of the times they had met with one another, Vera had been careful to make certain she was there first, a sign of a pro perhaps. _However, how had she done it? That day at Laurelhurst, it was a spur of the moment decision to take Kelly to the park, she hadn’t told anyone…or had she?_ Adalind couldn’t remember that day, what annoyance at her office that drove her away. When she first told Rosalee about Vera later that day, it was as a footnote after a long a trying day at the office, it surprised her to find the two were also already acquainted.

Untypical of Adalind, she had thought nothing of it, it’s not as though Portland was a small city where everyone knew everyone else. If meeting Vera happened by coincidence, and this latest killing was simply another coincidence on top of the many others that came before. That was one coincidence too many. It set a wild fire to the detectives’ case, getting them that much closer to solving it but it also left the group frazzled with deadly possibilities.

Hank and Wu made their exit but Nick lingered, tethered to Adalind and his son by an invisible cord.

“What is it? I already told you everything I can think of.” She said.

“I know, I know…it’s just the cop in me can’t let this go and the father and fiancé in me….” He said as he moved into her arms.

 _Aww,_ she thought. He was making her melt. This man made it impossible for Adalind not to love him, her protector in every sense of the word. 

“We’re going to be fine.” She reassured him, she was full powered so that wasn’t her trying to placate him, it was the truth.

“I just want you both safe, all of you. Will you stay here, at least until I return?”

“...Alright, but we’re going to have to leave some time. You are going to be gone for hours at the very least, I don’t we’re going to see you until tomorrow morning. I don’t want to inconvenience Monroe and Rosalee.”

“Well then, I’m taking you both, home. I’d feel better knowing that you’re secure there than—”

“Aah Nick…we came here separately, remember?”

“Fine, I don’t mind following you home.”

“No you won’t.”

She didn’t want to argue with him since technically, they wanted the same thing but at the same time, she was the more rational of the two at that moment. The truth was that nothing had happened to her, or Kelly and nothing had happened to any of his friends either.

Earlier, he’d called Bud to check in with the Eisbiber and learnt that he and Phoebe were more than all right. They were visiting the mother-in-law, out of town and Bud, the curious beaver that he was had questioned Nick about the reason for the call but Nick had managed to evade giving a straight answer, not wanting to alarm his flighty friend.

“We’re all going to be alright,” she repeated more firmly than before. “…I am a Hexenbiest again, so I can handle things fine while you’re gone.”

“Are you sure? It’s not as though you’ve had an opportunity to test them, properly I mean. You told me something felt different since the suppressant wore off….”

 _Right,_ she’d forgotten about that but then how could she test the extent of her abilities when old memories of her past life filled her with shame? No doubt that things between her and Nick had improved dramatically but she couldn’t fully shake off some of the insecurities about what she was. 

“Nick, don’t worry so much, everything is in working order.” She said as she levitated Kelly’s chew toy from her carry bag into her hand without looking. She could have done more, really raise the roof off but she didn’t want to cause a ruckus in Rosalee’s shop. “See? Now go, they need elsewhere. I’ll stay with Rosalee as long as it’s necessary and when it’s time to go home, I’ll let you know so you needn’t worry so much.”

Sometimes it was easy to forget that Adalind wasn’t the powerless waif from a year ago when she was desperate for protection. The entire dynamic of their relationship had changed and for the better. She only wished they had time to settle into this new and wonderful thing before diving once more into the chaos and violence that marked their lives since the day they first laid eyes on one another. She had yet to enjoy being a mother, being in love, recently engaged and now there was a killer possibly hunting them….

His brow creased with broody displeasure. It made him even more gorgeous to her and that gave Adalind secret pleasure to see how deeply he cared, which she hid behind her long lashes as she smiled at him.

“Please,” he said as relaxed a bit, some of the tension leaving his shoulders.

They exchanged an “I love you” and a chaste but expectant kiss for the next time when they would see one each other. It had none of the awkwardness that had marked their embrace earlier that evening with Hank and Wu now gone. Rosalee and Monroe didn’t count as she felt no judgement from them being intimate with Nick.

“Now go,” said Adalind.

Nick bid his friends good night, gave his family one final kiss and disappeared up the stair into the night to catch a killer.

“Now how about some tea?” Rosalee asked.

“How about something a little stronger?” Monroe pulled out a bottle of Bourbon from the cupboard and waved it at his wife instead.

“Bourbon sounds a whole lot better than tea,” said Adalind, a bit more relaxed.

“Yeah, that’s actually much better,” said Rosalee as she swapped the mugs for glasses.

They tried to keep the conversation light, like the recent engagement but all roads seemed to lead to Vera. They hadn't proven anything definitively yet, that she was, in fact, the serial killer, but the circumstantial evidence was conclusive enough. Monroe, just like Nick, was as curious about every minor little detail. It was a surprise he wasn’t a detective like Nick.

“How exactly did you meet?” He asked Adalind.

Adalind recounted the story for the umpteenth time.

“So she was at Laurelhurst Park before you?” he said thoughtfully.

“That’s why the whole thing doesn’t make sense, if she’s been stalking me this whole time. How could she have inserted herself into my life if I was almost always the last to show up at every location…unless she knew what my movements were beforehand? We’re talking several places here, very random unrelated locations. It was the park; there was the one time at a gym, the airport coming back from Germany and the Spice Shop. I think there was a grocery store somewhere in between all of that.”

“Could she have known…beforehand that is, where you’d be?”

“No…I don’t think so. It’s mostly places I’ve been to around work and there’s not a lot of people I converse with so easily these days, not since Nick’s mom and Diana’s last disappearance, except maybe Sandy.”

“Who’s Sandy?”

“Sandra Grootbaum, my PA at the office.”

“A-HA!” cried Monroe as if he’d just solved a great mystery.

“No, unlikely, I only tell her so much but not everything because of Nick. My firm can never find out about Nick.”

“She would still be the person that makes your appointments, knows your daily routine the most, in case they needed to reach you at the office.” He said.

“Adalind, he does have point.”

 _He did, so did that mean she had a spy in her very tiny circle? Hand Sandy betrayed what little trust she had in that office, or worse, was mousy, meek Rocky sold her out to Vera?_ She could hear her mother’s reproachful voice calling her a fool because this was exactly what happened when she trusted people.

She sighed in frustration. She loathed the idea of her mother being right about anything, especially with regards to Adalind allowing herself to grow attached to other people. Although Hexenbiest weren’t loners by any stretch of the imagination, their inherent ability not to trust still fostered a lonely life, something Adalind was adamant to break now with Nick and the likes of Rosalee and Monroe. She had hoped Vera would be another acquaintance that could grow into something more substantial but that was no longer an option for her.

“So what now?” Asked Monroe.

“Now we set a trap. It’s the only way to sniff out the rat.” She said and paused. At least there’s one thing I can be grateful for….”

“What’s that?” asked Rosalee.

“If someone’s been spying on me in that firm, it’s clearly off the clock, so to speak. Berman and Rautbort have no knowledge of his or her extracurricular activities at the office or else they’d have her head for working for a Grimm.”

“Can you be sure about that?” asked Rosalee, her concern written all over her face.

“I’m already touting the line as it is because of Nick. I know for a fact if B.R.&A. knew just how close I was to Portland’s Grimm, they would have come after me in an instant.”

“I sure hope you’re right,” said Monroe.

“I know I am.”

*/*/*

_Adalind and Kelly were sitting at the Laurelhurst Park bench enjoying the afternoon’s light breeze, while Nick was sweating up a storm over the barbeque. They were celebrating their son’s first birthday, a very important milestone for Adalind_ but honestly, every milestone was important to Adalind, _she thought contemplatively between ogling her sexy Grimm and entertaining their son with a squishy toy. Everything she experienced with her son was a first. It should not have been that way because of Diana but unfortunately, that wasn’t up to her._

 _Nick had wanted to hold the festivities above the loft in their new garden but Adalind swayed him to the park instead, “Kelly likes the park. It’s something that had become a favourite past time,” she told Nick that morning and so they gathered all their friends for a picnic catered more for the adults than the birthday boy,_ it’s not as though he would remember the day when he was older, _thought Adalind wistfully_.

_She shut her eyes for a moment and soaked in the sunlight but a shadow passed before her and Adalind felt the sudden weight on the opposite end of the bench. When she opened her eyes, she found Vera Fischer, sitting beside her, dressed immaculately and smelling like Coco Chanel, as per usual._

_“Hello Adalind…beautiful day, don’t you agree?” she said, however there was nothing remotely casual about her tone._

_“Hmm…it is, Kelly’s loving it, aren’t you Kel-bell?” she said as she a lump of suspicion as she rocked Kelly’s stroller back and forth between the two of them. “Where’s your little one, I don’t see her around, perhaps you can join us, we’re celebrating this guy’s big day.” asked Adalind as she scanned the park for a little girl if she actually remembered the toddler’s complexion but in truth, she didn’t._

_“I’m not here for that, I’m here for another reason,” said Vera cryptically as her hand laid hold of the stroller suddenly, causing the hairs at the back of Adalind’s hair to bristle quite sharply. Vera rose to her feet, the sun well behind her blinding Adalind, albeit shortly. “What a pretty little Grimm you are,” said Vera and she scooped Kelly out of his stroller, much to Adalind’s annoyance._

_“Excuse me, but what do you think you’re doing?” Adalind asked, pushing to her feet. She bristled with a possessive and protective streak that was her companion since the day she found out she was pregnant with Kelly. “Vera, give me back my son,” Adalind hissed like a snake ready to bite._

_“…But he’s not your son.”_

_Adalind felt the back of a steel fist connect hard with her chin and sent her crashing hard against a tree several yards away._

_Adalind woged but that didn’t dull the pain of the impact to her side and lower back. She’d cracked a few ribs, judging from the sharpness of the pain she felt in her midriff._

_“I mean look at yourself…_ witch _, he was never yours!” growled the other woman while nestling Adalind’s son across her chest as he began to cry. Vera looked once at Adalind with open contempt, turned and walked away._

_Adalind’s vision turned red with fury as she flew to her feet. Using her mind, she wrestled Kelly free from the Grimm’s arms, swaddled him safely into his stroller and shuffled it far away from Vera’s grasp as she pounced on the other woman, landing a heavy blow of her own across Vera’s perfectly made up face. Adalind was always great at multitasking but that was the last thing on her mind. All she could think of was getting Kelly safely away from this apparent psycho Grimm._

_“That…is going to cost you,” Vera said as she wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of her lips and rose to her feet, looming large in front of Adalind but she wasn’t fazed for a second. She wasn’t the first Grimm she ever faced nor was she afraid of her._

_For the first time, Adalind gazed into the dark bottomless abyss drawing her in like a moth to a flame but she would not fall for it. It’s never been documented what the darkness behind the Grimm’s eyes were. Many wesen who lived to tell the tale talked about seeing the absolute worst of themselves in those darkened orbs but there was always something that inspired an unnatural, paralysing fear that made even the strongest wesen want to run but Adalind firmly planted herself between Vera and Kelly. She wasn’t like any other wesen and much more than that, she was a mother who would rip off the throat of anyone that dared threaten her son. “You will not touch my son let alone come near him.” She warned Vera, the Grimm._

_“As if you have the power to stop me,” sneered the other woman towards Adalind._

_“I will do much more than that you crazy bitch!”_

_“Or you think Nick is going to ride on his high horse and fight your battles. He isn’t, I’ve made sure of it. He will never stand between you and I ever again, believe me.” Vera threw back her head in laugher._

_“What are you talking about?” Adalind looked towards the barbeque stand but Nick was nowhere in sight, in fact, none of their friends were there. The whole park had emptied, leaving the two women alone with Kelly’s bewildered cries, throwing Adalind into confusion, temporarily._

_Vera took a step towards Adalind but she gathered herself immediately and yelled for the other woman to back off. Each syllable dripping with more venom in case the message was lost in translation._

_Vera only smirked her way as Kelly’s cries grew to a crescendo. The need to tend to her distressed son made Adalind turn her eyes back to him to as to reassure him that his_ Mama _was there for him but when she turned back to face Vera, the Grimm had disappeared all except her wild cackling as if she knew something that Adalind did not. Adalind walked over to Kelly’s stroller to take him into her arms but he too had disappeared as the echo his wailing pierced Adalind’s heart like a thousand sharp daggers._

_“Kelly!” She called out to him desperately, searching every inch of that park to no avail. There were no children playing in the sand pit or nor the jungle gym, no parents watching from a distance, not even a car drove by. Adalind stood all alone in the middle of the park with Kelly’s cries and Vera evil laugh ringing in her head like a haunted carousel._

_“Kelly, KELLY!” She cried out until her throat now hoarse with exertion, searching for him in ever place she could think of, including her office, the loft and Spice Shop, every place she knew where to look but he was gone and so was Nick. Adalind was once again all alone in the world…._

“What did I tell you Addy,” _she heard her mother say._

A boisterous wind crashed against the shutters jolting Adalind from a deep sleep. She opened her eyes still heavy with restlessness. She winced in pain as she tried to stretch a little. In fact, her whole body ached as if she’d been in a serious fight but couldn’t be since she spent most of the night with Monroe and Rosalee. She considered the possibility of a dream but the last tendrils of her dream ebbed away the more awake she became. It would not have bothered her had she not felt dampness on her palms. At first, she mistook it for sweat only to find it was her blood evidenced by the stained sheets. Somehow, her fingernails had dug deep into her palms; tearing the skin, _but how and why?_

_Kelly?!_

She immediately jumped off the bed towards his crib but thankfully, she saw him lying peacefully, sound asleep, without a care in the world. She should have been relieved but something nagged at her. She looked down her bloody palms again, wondering what had happened. She clearly dreamt something terrible to make herself bleed this way so _what could it have been?_ Adalind gently felt her ribs once more and in deed, they were cracked. She was familiar with night terror growing up but never anything to illicit a physical manifestation; worse, she didn’t even remember what she had dreamt.

Adalind closed her eyes, willing herself to remember but all she managed was to wrinkle her nose at an imaginary smell, Chanel No. 5. She closed her eyes once more but there was nothing else. Her recollection of the dream was gone. Resigned, she shook her head from side to side. She was awake now, there was no point trying to conjure up what she couldn’t remember, _and whatever it was, it was over,_ she thought wearily. She looked down at the bloody sheets, and yanked them off the bed to stuff them in the washing machine before Nick returned home and faced a barrage of questioning to which she had no answers.

When Nick finally returned home, she didn’t bother checking the time on the clock. It was very early in the morning and she hadn’t slept a wink since she woke from her nightmare. She listened to him walking around the loft checking and double-checking everything, making sure they were secure before trudging into the bedroom with the world heavy on his shoulders, a call back to the early months after Kelly’s birth and she had suppressed her abilities. Every rattle against the windows had kept her wide awake at night until Nick came home, it was the only time she ever felt safe, waiting with anticipation to feel his wait against her.

“Hey…I didn’t mean to wake you.” He said quietly as he slid beneath the covers.

“It’s alright…I wasn’t really sleeping anyway.”

“Are you alright?” He asked. His concern was palpable.

“I’m fine.” She lied. “…You?”

She was hesitant to ask him about the recent body they found earlier so she bit her tongue, not wanting to burden him any more with her questioning over something that had visibly affected him, so she snuggled closely into his embrace hoping to put each other both ease only just for the night. She felt him nuzzle against her hair, breathing her in as he often did. It calmed her own frayed senses that had kept sleep at bay, worrying about Kelly while also worrying about him, his safety despite the fact that he was well capable of looking after himself, even when he was a sightless Grimm.

This gave Adalind some relief but not much. She knew that while Nick wasn’t a target, she knew Nick; he would make himself one in order to stop this killer. Years ago, he stood between herself and the bee queen that wanted to kill her and they barely liked one another back then. He did the same when Juliette threated her and their then, unborn son. It was in his nature to put himself in the line of fire to protect others and it was because of his protective nature that worried Adalind the most.

Years ago, neither of them had a reason to care whether the other lived or died and now the circumstances between them had changed so much so and the stakes were infinitely high for he both of them. If she was at risk, so was he. Their lives had twisted and twined together so intricately, it became increasingly difficult so see where he began and she ended.

“I’m fine.” He said quietly his voice course with inexpressible emotion. It was a lie.

“Nick….”

“Hmm?” He said, affecting drowsiness for her sake but she knew better.

“I’m sorry you had to go through what you did tonight. I can’t imagine how hard that was for you.” She said finally unable to keep her thoughts to herself.

He didn’t say anything but his arms wrapped more tightly around her body, _the only reassurance he needed,_ she supposed.

“As long as you and Kelly are safe…that’s all that matters. I told Renard about Vera Fischer.”

“…And…?”

“He hasn’t heard anything about a new Grimm in town. He’s not happy about it.”

“Of course he isn’t. He’s a typical Royal, he doesn’t like sharing, and in his mind, Portland only belongs to him.”

“On any other day, I’d be happy for another Grimm to ruin his day but not one that also threatened my family.”

 _His_ family, the thought made her light headed. Clearly, Nick being so open and unguarded about her and her place in his life was going to take some getting used to.

“Did something happen when I was gone?”

“No, why do you ask?” she said drowsily.

“I can hear you wincing in pain from just holding you and this….” He said while lightly grazing the inside of her hand with his thumb.

Nick lifted her hand so he can have a clear view, even in the darkened loft.

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I think I was having a nightmare or something.”

“Some nightmare that must have been, who were you fighting?”

“I didn’t say I was fighting. I don’t even remember what it was about.”

Nick soothingly rubbed the inside of her palm.

“It doesn’t really matter now anyway.” She added quickly.

She thought he would drop it but instead, Nick turned her so she lay flat on her back and she looked up at him. His eyes shone through the dark like lightning over a stormy sea. “You would tell me if you were not okay.”

Adalind wasn’t sure if that was a question or not. She nodded her head regardless.

Nick took a hold of each of her hands, raised them to his lips and kissed the reddened palms as if his lips could minister a healing salve. He ended with a deep rich kiss of her lips that melted every bone in her body, setting it on fire. 

“Thank you, that feels so much better.”

“Good.” He said and then rolled her back to rest against his chest.

Adalind thought he’d fallen asleep when his breathing had slowed to long and soft breaths, warm against her skin. She thought he’d finally fallen asleep but the soft raspy call of her name surprised her, “Adalind…?”

“Nick….”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

*/*/*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. Thank you once more for sticking with this story. Because this chapter was growing to long, the portion I snipped it at the end will be the opening of the next chapter. All comments are appreciated.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what I said in the previous chapter notes, please ignore that last bit. The opening of this chapter was written specifically for this chapter because of the dual POV. I’ve discovered that what I write for Adalind doesn’t always work for Nick and vice versa, so I reworked the chapter and yes, this too grew too long but I did my best to be economical with my word count. I’m not sure how people feel about long-winded chapters. I know I can get carried away (like 14000) and thus I don’t want to lose people under a whole mountain of words when a fraction of that can still get the point across. Again, thanks for taking to time to read my little attempt to keep Nadalind alive, your comments are well appreciated.

Nick’s eyes flew open at the faintest creak from the shuttered windows. He quickly surveyed their surroundings, making certain that nothing…no one hid behind the creeping shadows blanketing the loft’s bedroom. He pricked his ears to listen to every sound besides that of Adalind and Kelly’s slow breathing. For a moment he allowed himself to relax, they were alive and safe with him.

He heard a small voice in the back of his heard bemoaning his paranoia. That he was overreacting, even Adalind had tried to brush off some of the danger barking at their heels for his benefit but nothing could sway Nick to relax, not for one second. To say that he slept soundly would have been the understatement of the millennium. How dared he sleep after the horror he saw at the courthouse?

Nick and Adalind’s life together has not been an easy one, but they did their best to push through past ghosts, malicious Royals and other potential threats looming over them, they would get through this latest challenge, whatever obstacle was Vera Fischer, just as they did everything else before her.

When his aunt commissioned him just days after he received his sight, he had wished for a lot more than to “hunt the bad ones”. By her own words, she wanted to tell him more, at first he assumed it was about the keys to the lost treasure, but could there had been a lot more to it than that? There was so much he didn’t know about who and what he was, there had to be more to just hunting wesen like they were sport. Vera Fischer had to know that at least, he could not allow any Grimm to make sport of his family, not just Adalind and Kelly but Monroe and Rosalee, even good old Bud.

He considered the possibility of reasoning with her, to make her see things his way but first he had to catch her before she made good on her plan to kill those closest to him. Nick looked down at Adalind as she slept soundly, her head resting well above his heart, if he could freeze this moment forever he would but the real world beckoned him to get up with the rising sun slipping through the cracks on the openings.

Gingerly, Nick slipped from beneath Adalind, not wanting to wake her from her much needed rest. He hoped a hot shower would beat away the weariness weighing him down since he left the spice shop the night before. Hunting a random serial killer was so much easier to deal with than a killer targeting his loved ones.

“Mmm…Nick?”

“Shh…go back to sleep. It’s all right.” He said with a kiss to her temple. Her lack of conscious movement was the incentive he needed to pull away to his sleeping son only a few feet away. Satisfied, he hauled himself to the bathroom.

Nick braced himself against the wall with his outstretched arms as a hot torrent beat against his taut shoulders and down his front and back. It was welcome reprieve from his spiralling thoughts of the possible future. So lost in his head he missed detecting an intruder until a pair of petit arms encircled his chest, causing him to jump with surprise.

“Is there room for two?” asked Adalind.

“Always,” he said, wrapping his arms over hers. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“You know I can’t sleep unless you’re by my side.” She kissed his back, lingering over the skin that was tighter than normal, scars he’d earned for years of being a cop as well as Grimm. Nick closed his eyes, enjoying her ministrations.

“I need you….” She said, her hand broke loose from behind his and cascaded down his torso down to his shaft that had long stood erect with expectation. His whole body shook when she took him firmly in her hand, with deliberate strokes that elicited a heavy sigh from between his parted lips.

Nick turned on his heels, drawing her close against his chest, carefully so his towering stature wouldn’t pull them both down in the old, tiny claw footed bathtub. He leaned over Adalind until their lips entangled in a feverish dance of yearning and relief while his hand went on its own expedition over all her sensitive spot and until it reached its final destination that made Adalind moan with desire.

Yes, he needed her too. Nick lifted Adalind off her feet, leaned her against the sweaty tiled wall and entered her in one swift stroke.

*/*/*

“This is a terrible plan.” He said over feeding Kelly his breakfast the morning after.

Nick actually couldn’t believe she’d ever suggest something so reckless. She may as well walk into the tornado’s path and invite destruction upon her head. He liked to think himself a progressive specimen of the twenty-first century but his instincts belied idea when in an instant, he longed for the Adalind that curled up against his chest for security.

Nick took a deep breath to brace against the sharp reasoning of her lawyer mind. He wanted to call his friend to tell him “thank you very much” but he doubted Monroe would pick up on the sarcasm, or maybe he would but he wouldn’t care since the danger of hunting wesen alongside Nick over the years has made him complacent. However, if Monroe was complacent to the danger they faced it was Nick’s fault for encouraging it, especially with him always dragging his best friends to places where he should not. 

He was the cop and they were just civilians. He was the Grimm and they were just wesen. He was tasked with stopping bad wesen that endangered the lives of both wesen and Kehrseite, it was not his job to endanger their lives by bringing them into the mess he faced every single day, and now Adalind was following suite….

“How so?” She said. “We have a problem and this is one way to solve a mystery…it’s not like it will involve much, just you rocking up to work playing the ever diligent detective from Central Precinct investigating a crime of murder. You’ve done it before and it all worked out.”

“Yeah, that’s because there was an actual crime involving your firm that brought me to your offices, not now, plus what happened to keeping me away from that awful place so they wouldn’t connect us together?”

“Nick, you’re doing what detectives do, everyone knows what’s been happening all over Portland, no one is going to suspect anything personal between us.”

“…Other than the person who already knows and is feeding information to Vera.”

“At this stage, we actually don’t know for certain if there’s a spy—”

“There is and I’m surprised you’re even considering going to work today, if ever.” He said, irritated by the thought.

“I have to and we kind of had this conversation before, why I have to keep working there, unless you can whoosh away my contract with your magic stick…can you?”

He glared at her. Her blasé tone had the opposite effect on him, making him more frustrated.

“I didn’t think so,” she said. “Look, if we carry on as normal, we maintain the element of surprise and hopefully, you’ll be that much closer to catching your man…woman.”

“No.” he said adamantly but he knew he was fighting a losing battle with her. “It’s dangerous. You may as well invite Vera herself to lunch.”

“No, of course not…but it’s not entirely a terrible idea….” She mumbled into her cup of coffee hoping he didn’t hear that last part.

Wrong.

“Over my dead body!” he practically growled in her direction.

“It’s just a thought, of course I’d never do that, but Nick we can’t just sit and wait for Vera to decide to stop playing games and actually come after one of us, you can’t be in all place at once. It’s better to draw her out, on your terms.”

“What if she sees right through this charade and escalates her attacks regardless. The last thing we want to back her into a corner prematurely. She’s an unpredictable Grimm right now. It’s not like we all operate as per manual. I’ve already broken some kind of code because of the company I keep. I won’t put you at risk.”

“You’re not. Remember that little act I put on last year with regards to Kenneth?”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“You still trusted me then. Trust me now.”

His brow creased more than usual.

“Adalind, I just got you back, I’m not ready to lose you again….”

She moved around the table to hug him from behind, “…And you won’t.” She said rather confidently.

He leaned his head to the side so he could look into her beautiful blue eyes. “Just promise me that whatever you do, if I’m not with around you’ll at least be careful.”

“I will.” She said. She gently kissed his lips and then let him go, taking her seat across from his to finish her breakfast of rye toast, avo and scrambled eggs.

“Can I at least ask that you not be alone if and when you cross paths again with this Grimm?”

“I can’t promise you anything but I will try.”

Nick released a defeated sigh.

*/*/*

Nick sauntered through the automated glass double doors opening into Adalind’s law firm. His lax and easy posture didn’t betray the tumult raging within him. Someone in this office was a threat to his family and he was helpless to do anything about it…for now. Within these walls was spy, someone that would lead him to his target.

The thought of Adalind being this close to a killer wrecked his senses, though one would never guess from the calm way Nick carried himself. Instead of playing detective for her lawyer colleagues, he rather wanted to whisk her and Kelly into him arms, walk out this cursed building and never look but Adalind did make a point. Up until yesterday he had no suspect and his only way to trace her was through whoever fed Vera information from inside B.R.&A. All he had to do was to put on a show and someone, likely, her P.A. would bite, and the Grimm was as good as caught.

He walked up to the reception desk making certain his gun and badge were on full display in case anyone didn’t know already who he was.

“Good morning, I’m here to see one of your associates, Ms Schade?”

“I’m sorry but do you have an appointment?” The young woman with a heart-shaped face and rimless glasses perched precariously over the ridge of her nose replied.

“It’s police business, I don’t need to make one.” He said sternly.

“Please have a seat while I confirm her availability.”

He continued to stand at the desk and waited as she spoke on the receiver. Her face had turned a pretty shade of pink but her creased brow showed her annoyance at his insolence. Too bad for her, Nick didn’t care what she thought.

“Hi Sandy, there’s a detective at the front desk, he wants to see Ms Schade…alright; I will let him know…. Thanks.” She dropped the receiver and with a pout turned to him with an air of superiority, which would have made Nick laugh had he not been in a funk since that morning. “I’m sorry Detective but Ms Schade is currently indisposed at the moment. Perhaps if you made an app—”

“Screw that, I guess I’ll just find my way,” he cut her off and pushed past her protestations.

“Excuse me, sir—I mean detective, you cannot just walk in here, you are not allowed—” he heard her shout from behind him but he kept walking, determined to reach Adalind’s office. He didn’t know where it was but he was certain he’d find it, even if it meant opening every frosted glass door in his path. Thankfully, he didn’t have to as a variant of attorneys stuck their speckled eyes outside their doors drawn to the raucous he’d caused marching down the expensive hallway.

 _Adalind would love this,_ he thought dryly.

A woman with fiery red hair rushed out from behind her desk to stand between him and what he assumed was Adalind’s office door, _Sandy,_ he assumed while looking her up and down.

“I’m sorry detective but you cannot be here.” She said a little flustered.

“Ma’am I’d ask you to step aside before I cite you for obstructing a police investigation.”

Adalind stepped out of her office. “What is going on here?” She said, in a temper befitting a lawyer that earned well about six figures a year. For a second he forgot himself as he stared at her face with a minimal of make up to hide her beauty. He saw the corner of her lips lift by a fraction, obviously enjoying herself.

“Ms Schade….” he said sombrely.

“Yes….”

“Can we talk?”

“Have you made an appointment?” she asked with a disinterested look.

In another time, her dismissive nature would have inflamed him and not in a sexual way.

“I have some questions for you regarding your uh….” He paused and looked at the two women between them plus a few curios bystanders, “Do you want to do this out here, or can we step inside your office so we can talk more privately?”

She feigned an exasperated sigh and stepped to the side to let him pass through the door. She turned to Sandy and told her to hold her calls unless it was urgent, “In fact, wait ten minutes and then call me out for an important meeting with one of the partners.” She said to the side but she knew Nick heard every single word she said.

He gave her a pointed look when she entered the office and closed the door behind her. It was larger than he’d expected; the style very much minimalistic, sterile except for the splash of colour that was Kelly’s corner, beside Adalind’s large wooden desk.

There were some frame photographs next to her computer screen; he imagined they were all of Kelly with none of him. The thought angered him for some reason, not against Adalind but the wretchedness of their situation. Nothing said “no one in this office could ever know about them” than his fiancé being unable to display a single image of him on her desk.

Nick turned away from her desk to face Adalind. She gave him a playful but sexy smile. He wasn’t sure whether she was apologising or trying to seduce him, maybe it was both. She stepped up to him and planted a quick peck across his lips, catching him completely by surprise, all things considered. After a quick look over, she wiped the residual smudge of lipstick off his lips just to be safe.

“Now detective, how can I help you?” she said a little too loud.

“Ms Schade, I have a few questions for you concerning your whereabouts three days ago?” he said after a few missteps as he tried to gather his thoughts to what had brought him into her firm.

Nick barely started with his “question” when Adalind’s desk phone interrupted him mid speech.

“Yes Sandy…no the detective will not be having any coffee. He’s not staying long…no, thank you….” Adalind put down the receiver but didn’t connect properly, leaving the line open between her and her assistant.

“What is this about, detective? As you can see I’m rather busy.” She said in an affected tone.

“Really?” he mouthed silently at her.

“Sorry, Hon.” She responded likewise, apologetically. Nick stared down at the phone, waiting for a signal that they were finally alone in Adalind’s office, with no one eavesdropping on their conversation. It never came. Nick wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or excited that Adalind was right. All he knew for certain was that it didn’t look good for Sandy.

“Where were you this past Tuesday?” He asked her again but quickly scribbled something on her note pad. **_“This is ridiculous.”_** It said.

 ** _“I know but how else are you going to find Vera, unless you discover her contact._** I was here at my office working.”

“All day?”

“Maybe if you told me what this was about I’d be more forthcoming.”

“Da-Da!” squealed Kelly from his playpen. He stood on his pudgy little legs and lifted his arms towards his father. Blood immediately drained from Nick’s face, at his son’s exuberance at seeing him at his mom’s office.

Adalind dropped a rolodex to the floor, “Dammit!” she cried out instantly hoping to mask what had just happened.

 ** _“This is why this is a terrible plan, I shouldn’t have come here. We don’t even know for sure she’s listening in._** Answer my question please…we can either do this here or at the station. Which is more comfortable for you?” he said curtly. **_“Or it’s worse, she is listening and Kelly just sold us out.”_** Unable to resist holding his son, Nick lifted him up into his arms and rocked him back and forth hoping it will keep him quiet, and temper much of his enthusiasm.

“Well, I was working and then I met up a friend and an acquaintance for lunch at the Merlot Express. **_I wouldn’t worry too much about that, I don’t believe Sandy has any idea about us. It’s highly probable the flow of information is one way. To Vera.”_**

 ** _“You know that doesn’t actually make me feel better and you don’t know for sure that they don’t know about us._** At what time and I am going to need their names to corroborate.”

**_“Sandy has never seen you before today, how could she know about us? I’m certain Vera is the one siphoning details of my movements, I doubt she’d sharing what she may already know about us with Sandy for her to share with my bosses._** Are you going to ask me what I had for lunch…dessert as well?” she said sarcastically.

“Don’t be smart with me.” He said.

 ** _“If they even suspected something…Berman is a flake but Rautbort…he would have acted on it already.”_** She quickly scribbled. Her handwritten growing more indecipherable with every stroke.

The shrill of Adalind’s phone cut through the air once more, making Adalind to jump unexpectedly.

After a few more rings, she finally answered. “Yes Sandy, what is it?” she spoke into the receiver. “I’m kind of busy at the moment, I cannot speak with her. Please take a message.” She said and then hung up.

**_“I take it that’s my cue to leave?”_** he wrote for her.

 ** _“Almost…._** Lunch was around 1:30PM and it was with Rosalee Calvert and Vera Fischer. I can give you Rosalee’s number; unfortunately, I do not have a contact for Vera…. **_Hand me Kelly, Sandy will be coming in any second now,”_** she wrote before flipping the note pad upside down. He did accordingly, much to Kelly’s displeasure, which he quickly got over once he was secure in his mother’s arms. Nick stepped several feet away from the desk and pulled out his own note pad from his back pocket for good measure.

“I’m sorry to disturb you Ms Schade but it’s about the call from the realtor. Ms Vance says your meeting at 11:30 at the Saffron Boutique on 9th Avenue down town on is still on. She has several interested parties to run by you. Shall I confirm your appointment?” asked Sandy rather curiously.

“Yes Sandy, that will do just fine, thank you.” She then turned to Nick, “Are we done here?” She said as she turned to Nick.

“…For now, I will be in touch if I have more questions.”

“Here’s the number you asked for… _**the bait is set, let’s see if she bites…love U.”**_ She handed her scribbled note to Nick. He quickly glanced at it and stuffed it in his pocket and bid the two ladies a good day while silently praying Kelly wouldn’t notice his quick exit and call out to him for his daily goodbye kiss.

Dread suddenly filled Nick with every heavy step he took out of that office as he left Adalind and Kelly to an unknown fate. He offered up an uncharacteristic silent prayer for both mother and child and hoped she was correct that Sandy could not have heard Kelly’s babbling and also about the disconnect between Vera and B.R.&A.

*/*/*

He spent most of the early afternoon distracted. He’d joined his partner following every lead they came across. It would have been productive on his end, if not for the fact that he kept checking the time, repeating question Hank had already asked of potential witnesses. Hank was kind enough to let it slide until eventually the frustration got to him.

“Man I know that this is not easy for you but I need your head in the game.”

“Huh…I’m sorry.” He apologised.

“Let’s do what we do best to catch this killer and put an end to this nightmare.”

Nick felt terrible for letting Hank do all the heavy lifting but how could he not, when his mind was elsewhere, 9th Avenue to be exact. It was almost midday and he hadn’t heard anything from Adalind. He’d quashed every desperate yearning to call and hear her voice. Renard, to his surprise, had even offered Nick some time off the minute he was appraised of new information, the possible connection to Adalind but Nick was loathe to sit this one out.

“Aright ma’am, can you please tell us if there was anyone beside Mr Jefferies who could want to do Ms Sanchez any harm?” asked Hank of the old lady that occupied the second half of the semi-attached.

“Well young man, I cannot be certain. It’s not lady-like to spread gossip on your neighbours but she had more than one gentleman caller. I at least heard her call one of these here callers Simon.”

Mrs Durandt, did anyone want or have a reason to want to hurt the victim?” Asked Nick.

Hank threw Nick a dirty look.

“About Simon…does he have a last name?” Hank engaged the elderly witness once more.

“I’m sorry young man. I do not know. My ears don’t work so well these days. I never hear unless someone speaks up proper.”

“By any chance can you describe this Mr Simon? What he Caucasian, Black or Latino ma’am?”

“No, I’ve never seen him before.”

“Alright, thank you kindly ma’am. Now you have yourself a lovely day. Don’t be shy to call if you remember any more.”

“I will.” She said and closed the door behind her.

“Do I need to do this alone because I don’t mind, I can handle this while you—”

“No, it’s fine.” He told Hank.

Hank didn’t buy it.

“Actually, it’s not.” He finally admitted.

They made their way to their patrol car where Nick outline Adalind’s outrageous plan to lure Vera out into the open.

“No surprise there. Look, I can’t begin to assume I know what you’re going through, I don’t but I’m here for you, however you need me. Maybe Renard was right. Take some time off to do what _you_ need to do….” He said; the inference not lost on Nick. “…And I’ll do what I need to do on my side.” 

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, it’s better this way, or else Adalind is going to be the one to worry for your safety.” He said sarcastically.

Hank dropped Nick on 9th Avenue two blocks away from the Indian restaurant Adalind met with the realtor before returning to the Precinct. Nick had no plan, nothing beyond making finding Adalind. He canvassed the street, scanning every face, something told him he’d know Vera the instant he laid eyes on her. His intensity attracted a few woges from frightened wesen but he kept going until he got to the restaurant, stifling his own agitation.

He looked down at his watch; it was almost 1pm on the dot. He wasn’t sure what to expect. _Maybe the morning charade at the office was for nothing and Adalind’s P.A. wasn’t a mole, or maybe she was and Vera had gotten to Adalind long before her meeting with the realtor_. The thing with serial killers is the escalation of the crimes, either through growing too cocky or because the net was closing in around them. Nick wasn’t sure where his killer fit in; he simply hated the idea of Adalind making herself a target before they knew anything about whom they were chasing.

He entered through the open door and the hostess greeted him at the door asking if he’d made a reservation, to which he denied. “I’m looking for one of your patrons,” he said, flashing his badge and gun in her face.

Her demeanour changed swiftly from ease to stiffened wariness as she stepped aside and allowed Nick to pass through. Instead of walking through, he went to the bar instead, choosing a spot that gave him a vantage point of the whole dining area in the reflection on the mirror, while keeping his face from view. If Adalind was still there, he didn’t want to cause unnecessary drama and if Vera showed up as she had suspected he didn’t want to scare her off before he could make his move.

He spotted Adalind in the corner of his eye. He saw only the back of her head but he recognised the short sleeved, mauve silk blouse she wore for the office that morning, the one Kelly nearly ruined with his daily morning projectile as Nick fed him his breakfast. Nick leaned back to her a better view of her companion. He couldn’t make out a face but a sway of long dark hair caught his attention. His heart began to race wildly.

 _“Maybe it’s the realtor,”_ he told himself. He rebuked his negligence for not asking Adalind the description of the person in charge renting out her house.

Nick leaned further back on his stool until the woman’s face was well within his sight. He’d barely taken in her features before their eyes locked and a knowing passed between the two of them, as if they’d known one another for years although they’d met before that moment. Nick perceived a furious storm behind her dark eyes that prompted him to his feet as he quickly made his way to their table.

_Vera Fischer!_

He intentionally stood right behind Adalind, looming over her protectively to drive home a message to the other Grimm and cleared his throat, making her turn to face him.

“Nick!” she exclaimed in surprise. “Wh—what are you doing here?”

He turned his gaze from Vera toward Adalind, “I was in the neighbourhood, working a case. You don’t mind if I join you two?” he said, stressing every syllable as he took his seat.

“No, not at all,” said the other woman as she schooled her face to mask the emotions brewing behind her sharp gaze.

“I’m sorry, we’ve never met….”

“Uh—where are my manners, Nick this is Vera Fischer, the…woman I was telling you about. Vera, this is Nick, he’s my uh…son’s father.”

“I’m her fiancé.” They both spoke at the same time. Nick stretched out his hand for Vera to shake.

“Fiancé? Wow, I had no idea. Adalind never said anything about—” she said, her voice now uncertain as she placed her hand in his in greeting. “I’m glad to finally put a face to the name,” she said, the wind knocked from her confidence. Nick knew she was lying. He saw it in her eyes but she couldn’t break character. He saw the wheels turning in her head as she tried to find her footing, she clearly had not expected him to show up, let alone reveal the extent of his relationship with Adalind.

He passed his eyes over at his fiancé and she was just as bewildered as Vera was at his presence. He should have warned Adalind but there was no time for that. He saw his chance and took it, now they would wade the waters together. 

“Yeah, it’s recent but long overdue.” He said as he studied Vera.

Her back had stiffened. Her voice was clipped, her knuckles, whiter that the bleached table cloth strewn over the wooden table.

“I’m so…happy for you,” she chirped but her face rippled slightly with displeasure, as if collapsing from all the weight of pretending.

“Adalind tells me you’re a cop.”

“Yeah, a detective.”

“It can’t be easy, doing what you, especially with a serial killer on the loose.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, she will be caught soon enough.”

“She?” Vera perked up a bit and asked rather eagerly.”

“Excuse me?” said Nick acting confused.

“You said ‘she’ will be caught, I thought it was a ‘he’, at least that’s what all the papers say.”

“Oh, I must have misspoke.” He said in a hushed tone that implied he didn’t make a mistake. “I meant ‘he’ will be caught soon enough. The killer is growing careless, especially with the last victim happening so quickly after the last and in such a public setting with so many witnesses.” He was looking at her dead in the eyes when he said the last. He wanted her to know he was on to her.

Vera looked down at her wrist and feigned surprise at the time. “Adalind, as always, it was a pleasure running into you but I am late for an appointment of my own. Till next time?” she said as she gathered her handbag off the empty chair and rose to her feet.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear but honestly Vera, we need to stop meeting like this. Give me your card and we can organise something instead of leaving it to chance, plus I have I want to invest some money…for our son’s future.”

Vera rummaged through her bag as if looking for something, “I’m sorry,” she said. “I must have run out.”

Adalind and Nick both looked at one another knowingly.

“Oh, no worries, here’s mine,” said Adalind. “Call me on this number and I will save your contact so we can talk sharp.” Adalind handed Vera her card but Nick was doubtful Vera would actually use it. He’d played his hand, so he expected Vera to retreat, to regroup before she could make her next move.

Vera bid her goodbyes and scurried away like a rat after the lights came on.

Adalind turned her attention back to Nick, “What the hell was that?”

Shocked at her blunt tone, “I could ask you the same.” He said, his own temper rising suddenly. “What happened to you not being alone with that woman?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Well, you could have fooled me,” he said turning his head as if scanning the whole restaurant to drive his point. “Let’s see…a few waiters, an accountant at the back, an elderly couple in the corner, another couple barely out of middle school two tables away and forgive me if I don’t put any stock in the four ‘Roid juicers in the table outside, to stand between you and a homicidal Grimm.”

“Nothing happened, we were just talking.”

“Adalind!” He said her name, irate because she took the whole thing rather lightly. 

“Nick!” she said irritably. “Like I said, we were just talking. Everything was going well until you dropped a bomb on her. I didn’t realise we were telling the world about us.”

“Since a Grimm showed up in town and started killing people to send me a message.”

“About that, Vera is not a Grimm.”

“Come again?” Now he was confused.

“Vera is no Grimm. I think I have been around one long enough to smell one.” She said without a hint of sarcasm. “She looks like a duck, walks like a duck but honks like a goose, if you catch my drift.”

“I do not.” He said. His patience past the point of return.

“I didn’t exactly come here unprepared. I may have been out of the game for too long and I am not the strongest Hexenbiest around, but I’m as wily as they come and know my way around a zaubertrank blindfolded. Two words…Verfluchte Zwillingsschwester. Vera, if that’s really her name, is a Hexenbiest wearing a Grimm skin.”


End file.
